


A Different Perspective

by Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron



Series: Runes and Revenge [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: M/M, Vampire Alec Lightwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22242670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron/pseuds/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron
Summary: After being kicked out of Alec's wedding Magnus finds himself in a completely different universe. One where he did jump that fateful night on the Blackfriars bridge.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Runes and Revenge [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808047
Comments: 9
Kudos: 146





	A Different Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> Ao3 didn't format this properly so I've had to go through individually and put paragraphs in. If you spot one that's not right just... I'll get to it at some point

Magnus honestly didn’t know how he ended up here.

He could feel the shift in the air around him, his magic telling him something wasn’t right. Yet until he'd stared up at the building that was meant to be his own Magnus hadn’t realised that the world around him currently wasn’t his own.

Huh.

He didn’t think he’d done accidental magic since his hundreds. It was rather embarrassing, now that he thought about it, and for what? For some doe eyed nephilim who'd married a woman he didn’t even love. For humiliating himself because he thought, maybe he might have a shot if he just gave Alec one last chance.

He felt ridiculous. He looked ridiculous. All these rings and glitter and- and. 

No. No it wasn’t Magnus. He wasn’t doing this again. Mostly because there was no Ragnor around anymore to tell him he was making an idiot of himself. 

Ragnor... another casualty from following nephilim into their own trouble. Well that was it. Magnus was done. They could find some other warlock if they wanted something done, and Magnus hoped they charged those nephilim through the roof.

As for Magnus, well, as soon as he got his way into his own world again he was... he was gonna get a cat. Yeah, a cat. This whole thing started because he was lonely, and while his darlings did like to come onto the balcony to visit, Magnus would like a constant face when he came home from a long day.

So, a cat it wa-

“Hey! Watch where you’re going,” Magnus picked himself up, dusting himself off as the lunatic on a bike continued on their merry way. “Idiot.”

He glanced back up to the abandoned warehouse, sighing as he thought about all the magic he was going to expel just to make the thing liveable. Then stopped when he realised he honestly didn’t want to be alone right now.

Cat, in any universe, was probably busy, and since Magnus didn’t want to chance losing Ragnor a second time that left only one of his small group of immortals left he could wallow with, and Raphael always was the best at wallowing.

The DuMort, at least, looked the same as it usually did. Beaten down, crumbling, with just a hint of something dangerous lurking beyond the shadows. He knocked, thinking of that nice new penthouse Raphael had all to himself. Honestly Magnus was doing Raphael a favour. It wasn’t like he was going to be bringing anyone back. Best let Magnus break in one of the guest rooms.

He knocked again. “Raphael? Papa's come to see you.”

That usually got him Raphael in seconds, the vamp often covering Magnus’s mouth and threatening bodily harm if he thought about referring to himself that way again. It worked this time too, except Raphael didn’t look so much murderous as he did confused. “Do I know you?”

Oh they were playing this game again. “Very funny. Look, I seem to have found myself in an alternate universe. I would impose upon myself but it looks like he’s moved and I honestly can’t be bothered to track him right now. Now I know what you’re thinking, why not Ragnor? And the answer to that is that I’d rather spend time with you my handsome little vampire,” he smashed Raphael’s cheeks together, the vamp oddly not pushing him off.

Raphael did however repeat, “Ragnor? As in Ragnor Fell?”

“What other Ragnor is there? Actually there’s a few,” however, “None that we both know though. So,” he squeezed his way past, his spirits feeling much better now he had someone more miserable than him to leech the sadness away. “Which rooms don’t you use?”

“Rooms?”

“In the penthouse,” he liked the hotel, it was actually looking quite chic now Camille wasn’t in charge. Still, he didn’t want to be in an apartment on his own. 

Magnus turned when he didn’t get an immediate reply, finding Raphael on his phone. Typical.

“Guess I'll choose for myself then.”

Raphael hummed, pushing the button for the top floor without even breaking whatever conversation he was typing out. 

There was music in the lifts in this universe, Magnus honestly surprised at the choice. He never pegged Raphael as a pop man. But then, when had Magnus ever asked him what sort of music he liked? These days anyway, Magnus remembered many a good night going out salsa dancing, swing, any kind of fast paced jive of the decade. Magnus supposed pop made sense. It had a good rhythm and some of it was interesting to dance to.

The doors dinged, Raphael hissing out something low before Magnus saw the last thing he expected coming up here. It was like the universe was taunting him or something because there he was. There Alexander was. Lounging on a deep red sofa, an actual tank top barely covering him as he flicked through his phone.

Those doe eyes looked up before flitting back to his phone, the same music from the elevator starting up on his phone before earphones took care of the noise. “Who's this?”

Charming.

But, Magnus supposed, not his Alexander. They probably hadn’t met yet.

“No idea,” Raphael said, and that-

“What do you mean you don’t know who I am. It’s me. Magnus.” 

Yet not even his name garnered any recognition from Raphael. The vamp held his phone up, “Smile,” the camera clicking before he finished speaking. “Ragnor said he might know him,” Raphael said, wandering over to Alec. More than that, practically prostrating himself over Alec in a way Magnus certainly never in his nightmares would have imagined. Raphael didn’t even seem bothered, flicking a few fingers to the vacant chairs, “take a seat if you like.”

He didn’t. He didn’t know if it was Alec or Raphael but Magnus stayed standing there trying to process the world around him. How could Raphael know Ragnor but not him? Why, just why was Alec here? Why was he letting Raphael lean on him like that? Magnus couldn’t even get a handshake. 

Questions for which were swiftly, or in part, answered when a familiar swirl of green appeared in the room. Ragnor was alive. Ragnor was alive and green and healthy in front of him. Magnus on the other hand,

“Good God it is you.”

“Why would it-"

He was squished against Ragnor's chest, and while panic was quickly setting in he hugged back. Ragnor was alive. Ragnor was physically there to touch. He wasn’t the only one thinking that. “You’re alive.” 

He- “I take it something happened to me,” he squeaked out when the dots finally connected themselves. His loft missing. Raphael not knowing him. Alex- actually that didn’t explain Alec’s presence here. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Ragnor shushed. “You’re here now.” Ragnor squeezed a little tighter.  
It took a while to part and sit, Ragnor staying close the entire time. It must have been bad. It must have been a while ago too. They were at somewhat of an impasse when Magnus finished explaining his accidental magic. He didn’t day why it happened just that it happened and here he was. Ragnor didn’t know what to do with that. “Usually people come through a portal.”

“I know,” But Magnus didn’t recall a portal. Just that he was here.

“Well you’re going to need somewhere to stay,” Ragnor said.

Magnus’s eyes flitted to where the other two were cosied up. “With you?” he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle watching the two of them flirt. Okay if it was another shadowhunter . But Raphael? Then again, if anyone could make Raphael happy Magnus supposed it would be Alec. Still, it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“If you like. I just... er.”

“Need to clear Cat out?” Raphael finished.

“Wait,” no, “you and Cat are together?” and it happened in a timeline where Magnus was freaking dead? This wasn’t fair. He’d been waiting to see that love story for years. Which, he supposed he wouldn’t actually get to see now.

Ragnor made a face, “In a way I suppose.”  
“What other way is there?” Alec asked, eyes on the ceiling. 

Ragnor raised a brow at him but didn’t deny the dig. 

Magnus was hesitant to get between them but, “If you and Cat need your privacy I’m sure there’s somewhere else I can stay.” God knows he wasn’t messing with whatever slither of happiness Ragnor had managed to carve for himself, and while Magnus had few long term relationships he knew privacy was something couples liked. And Magnus was more than willing to weather Ragnor on his own but Ragnor and Cat? Together? No chance. Who knew what they’d try and counsel him into.

Probably therapy.

Probably swindling some secret spells he might have thought up in the time he’d been dead in this world and creating in the other.

So, “What about your house in Idris? Or London? You didn’t keep my apartment in Paris did you?”

Another shady look, meaning that something had happened to the apartment he didn’t want to know about.

“I suppose you can stay here,” Raphael droned at last. “If Ragnor trusts you-"

“I do. Magnus was- is- a good friend. A trustworthy one-"

“Then he can stay. I have to admit I’m curious about my counterpart. Does he let you pull that crap outside the hotel?” the pet name.

“Not so much let as suffer through because he loves me. Not like that,” he tacked in case Alec thought he had something to worry about. 

So it was settled. Magnus was staying at the hotel. With Alec. Oh joy.

He didn’t get a room in the penthouse. The first guest bedroom had been taken by Lily, which sort of made Magnus question why since vampires were easy of hearing at the best of times. Literally next door? The other guest room was being used as a walk in closet for Raphael’s many, many clothes.  
Meaning Magnus had an apartment just below the penthouse where he quickly magicked a few things to make it a little more homey. Not to mention he wanted to see if his magic worked the same here as it did in his world. It did.

Ragnor hung around, often touching Magnus, something he would have found annoying had he not felt the same thrill Ragnor probably did of him being there. Corporeal. Alive.

“If Raphael is mean to you just tell me. I know he drives some people up the wrong way,” Ragnor said later over dinner.

“I’m used to him don’t worry about that.” 

Ragnor was worried however, and not once did he tell Magnus he was a dirty liar when he tried to embellish a little. They were stepping around the issue, and quite frankly Magnus was morbidly curious about just how his other self departed from this world. Was it in battle with some demon? Slain by a shadowhunter for some noble act they deemed monstrous? How?

So he posed the question, and actually wished he’d never asked once he bullied the answer out of Ragnor.

“Suicide.” Off the Blackfriars bridge. That... that was a little too ... he didn’t even know. All he knew was that this Magnus had took this plunge he almost had. As much as he hated Camille she had saved his life that night, and while he did despair at his future on occasion, he was still happy to be alive.

“Oh.”

Ragnor took his hand, “but you’re here now. And I am so happy to see you.”

“I'm happy to see you too,” Magnus said. 

He asked about Cat. About just when they got together. It turned out it wasn’t long after Magnus died that they realised life was too precious to spend it dancing around each other for hundreds of years. Depressing, but Ragnor was happy. Really happy, and from what Magnus heard Cat was too. So was everyone else in this universe. Except Magnus who was dead.

Everyone was asleep when Magnus finally stumbled back to the hotel. Or, they weren’t around when Magnus came back. Either way he stumbled into bed pleasantly drunk and happy. Maybe this day didn’t start out great, but Ragnor was alive and that was always something to celebrate.

Of course, once the alcohol had wore off and Magnus had nothing to do but wait until Ragnor called with news on how to get him back home he had nothing but time to lie there and stare above him. Wondering. Contemplating. Musing about whether Raphael was still ‘not interested' in this universe or whether he was up there snuggling Alexander’s back after thoroughly debauching him. 

Magnus could see the appeal. For both of them. Raphael was a handsome man. Kind too even if he pretended he’d rather see someone dead on the street than admit it. Magnus had no doubt that even without his influence that was his Raphael up there. The one who phoned him sometimes when he was lonely and didn’t want to admit it. Who knew all he'd need was Alexander. They were both quite similar too, so he saw how that would appeal to the other. 

He sighed. He knew he was just sore. If a Magnus had existed in this world he was sure Alec would be- well, maybe not actually.

But, it made Magnus feel better to think so, meaning he happily imagined that had his other self been saved that night he too would have found and properly wooed Alec enough that they would be in Magnus’s loft right now and not at the hotel.

Speaking of which, did his parents know where Alec was spending his nights or did he sneak back to the Institute through the day.

Did Maryse approve of the match? Did Robert? He knew the other two wouldn’t care less. Although maybe they would. Raphael rubbed people the wrong way after all, and out of the entire downworld, a vampire wasn’t exactly a shadowhunters go to for romantic endeavors. Too many chances to get bitten.

He sulked, thinking about it. Thinking about that night on Blackfriars. At least he knew now he would have done it. He’d always wondered if he would have chickened out. If he would have saved himself at the last minute with magic and cop it up to a moment of insanity.

Nope.

He didn’t quite know what to do with that.

The door knocked. “I have breakfast,” said a familiar voice on the other side.

Magnus considered ignoring it but, well, if this was the only way he was going to get Alec to being him breakfast he may as well enjoy it. Tugging a robe on his ego definitely appreciated the way Alec’s eyes dipped down. Lingering. “Breakfast?” Magnus prompted when even he thought it was a little indecent for a taken man.

Alec’s eyes snapped up. “Right,” he thrust a tray out, a plate of burnt toast and awful looking eggs staring back at Magnus. “I er, I would have got you something from the cafe but, dusk isn’t for another half hour.”

“Dus-" oh. Oh that was interesting. Now that Magnus was looking he could see the point to Alec’s teeth. The pallor to his skin. 

Alec was a vampire.

Magnus took the offered tray, “Thank you anyway. Do you want to come in? I dislike eating alone.”

Alec swallowed, fiddling with his phone until another song started playing silently through his earphone. “I er, I don’t think that’s a good idea. But thank you.” He disappeared in breath, Magnus’s door slamming shut from where Alec had pulled it on his departure.  
Offended Magnus might have been were it not for the fact that Alec was a vampire. Probably a freshly turned one, and while warlock blood wasn’t the best, it was still fresh, and to a newborn that was all they needed.

He set the tray down, chewing his way through the toast. How did it happen he wondered? An accident? Or did Raphael think what he and Alec had were so definite he wanted to seal it forever? If that were the case maybe Magnus should send his own Alec Raphael’s way. He wasn’t one to stand in the way of true love. So long as it was true, which Magnus was sort of hoping it wasn’t.  
Regardless, it answered why Alec were here. But with that answer brought a whole new slew of questions to mind. Namely where the other Lightwoods stood in this. 

He didn’t know if he wanted to ask. But he was bored, and needed something to do, so Magnus tidied himself up when he was finished eating the monstrosity that was Alec’s cooking and went searching for the other changes his death had on this world.

Not good ones it turned out.

Lorenzo Ray was the High Warlock.

Something that just- nope, didn’t sit right with him. Will never lived to his ripe old age. In fact, he dropped dead shortly after his third child. Jem was dead. A lot of people were dead.

He was more depressed stepping outside than he had been lying in bed. So of course he returned to bed to mope about. Then got a little too lost in bad thoughts and wandered upstairs to bother Raphael. If he forgot Alec was there when he did so no one had to know.

As it was, as soon as Raphael deemed Magnus okay to come in, he cosied up right back on top of Alexander again, arms spread wide over the legs that bracketed his hips. It was the most surreal and sweet things Magnus had ever seen. Up until he was in the middle of attempting to describe the differences and realised it wasn’t a couple thing. Well, maybe not just a couple thing. Alec wasn’t even present, eyes distant on the ceiling. Newborn thirst. Magnus would bet good money Raphael was expelling a good amount of strength pinning Alec down. He didn’t show it. But Magnus could see the strain on Alec’s legs. The way the material bunched. 

“So how did you two... get entangled?” Magnus asked when Raphael busied Alec’s hungry stomach with a mug of blood.

Raphael tilted his head back, resting it on Alec’s chest, “I used to make out with him in exchange for small favours.”

Magnus was sure his eye twitched. “Right.” He didn’t even get a handshake yet Raphael got made out with? This wasn’t fair. “Well you both seem happy.”

“Now Camille is gone,” Raphael agreed. 

Magnus would like to think he didn’t know how Camille was with other people’s happiness but he did. She seemed to take perverse joy in causing trouble, making people doubt the other. Especially her underlings. Who knows what she might have done to keep the two of them apart. Alec was a shadowhunter after all. Actually, “It wasn’t Camille that turned you, was it Alec?”

Alec glanced down at him, throat working a few times before he said, “No. Raphael, I guess did. Right?”

“That’s how it works,” Raphael agreed.

Right. So it was how it looked. Okay then.

He didn’t stay too much longer. Namely because the longer he stayed the more Alec seemed to work his way around Magnus’s presence. He was able to make small conversation, Raphael not looking so strained, and the fact he didn’t move now he was no longer needed messed a little with Magnus’s mind. Mainly because he wanted to be the one who pinned Alec down.

In a fun way.

In the grand timeline of events Magnus didn’t realise he was living through he almost had a heart attack when the next morning came and Alec actually accepted his invitation. Mainly because, “This new fledgling is here. He won’t shut up.”

Magnus knew before he asked, “His name's not Simon is it?” 

“You have one too?” 

He did, and if Simon was a fledgling here that meant that things were still working the same. There was still Valentine. Valentine was still back. Simon had been changed, God knows if the cup had been found. Or if Luke was still alive. Or if many of the things Magnus had done for those shadowhunters was still done. Lorenzo had probably charged them through the roof if he had helped. 

Regardless Alec came in, curling into one of the armchairs. It was only when he passed Magnus that he realised Alec wasn’t as tall as the Alec in his world. His jaw wasn’t as defined too. He just looked younger, which made Magnus question how old Alec was.

When he asked he was a little confused at the twenty three that was his answer. Alec seemed to know why Magnus was asking . “I was turned when I was eighteen.”

Ah. “Eighteen is pretty young.” Although Raphael was nineteen when he met his demise so, maybe not that young in vampire terms. 

“It was sort of accidental,” Alec said.

“Aren't most?” Only a few vampires actually wanted to be vampires. The rest usually ended up one after a few unfortunate events.

Alec looked a lot more comfortable today, asking questions he probably hadn’t the strength to yesterday. He was also blatantly checking Magnus out. It was subtle. But Alec was definitely looking Magnus over.   
“... did the other Alec kill one or...?” 

Measuring up seemed to be on everyone’s minds, Alec onto how many demons other him had gotten. “Yeah he did. Quite a few I think.” 

Alec nodded, his singular one not looking quite so impressive. 

But, “I mean he's been a shadowhunter a little longer than you.” 

Alec nodded again. Still he made it his mission to try and find something the other Alec hadn’t done. It spoke of how shadowhunters were brought up that it was mainly killing Alec wanted to compare himself with. “I mean, my overall count is eighty seven.”

“That..,” would have been impressive if Magnus didn’t have a feeling Alec was talking about downworlders. Still, “I guess other Alec might not have gotten that many. He seemed more concerned with helping people and watching his siblings backs than going out actively killing.”

Alec twisted his face, probably realising where he’d went wrong. Magnus hoped anyway. He was a downworlder now. 

“So what do you do for fun?” Magnus asked when the silence got a bit too long.

To that this Alec certainly had a lot more to say than the one from Magnus’s world.

Magnus would bet other Alec had never even been inside a theatre if it wasn’t demon related. This one on the other hand had been introduced to a multitude of mundane pleasures. He had ice skates upstairs, roller blades, a bike that was currently being used by one of the vamps downstairs. He’d been to a mundane pool, even abroad when Raphael had to track down one of his wayward vampires God knows Camille wasn’t going to do it.

He had a lot to say, and the way he said it still spoke of that childlike wonder of someone discovering the world for the first time. It was cute. A little sad. But cute.

“They keep some of the centres open later for vampires,” Alec told him. “Ragnor mentioned yesterday that you like to dance. I’m not too good in clubs but the roller rink is usually pretty empty if you wanted to go sometime?”

“Oh.” How sweet. If inappropriate. “I’m not sure. I don’t know when I’m going back after all.”

Alec nodded, eyes down. “No of course.”

“But I suppose I could go with you if Ragnor doesn’t magically send me off tomorrow if you like.” So he was weak for Alec. So what? It wasn’t Magnus’s fault the man was just so... wholesome. 

“Really?”

Magnus nodded, “Sure.” 

A sure he would come to regret as the next night dawned with Manus still here and joined at the door to the hotel with not just Alec. No. This Raphael wasn’t as reclusive, it appeared, as Magnus’s own. Or he simply did things because it made Alec happy. Either way Magnus had completely ignored the fact that of course Raphael would be tagging along too.

He felt like an idiot.

Even more so because he'd sort of dressed up. Why? Magnus wasn’t too sure. He wasn’t a home wrecker and didn’t particularly want to become one. Yet there he was, in a shirt he would have wore back home that cut right to his warlock mark. Thankfully the other two thought it was just how Magnus dressed. But Magnus couldn’t help the prickle of fear that drove up his spine every time Alec stared at his chest. Raphael was right there, and while he was usually one to avoid a fight if it came down to it, Magnus didn’t know if that was going to be true if he saw Alec making eyes another man’s way.

It sort of put a damper on the evening. It was fun, Magnus wasn’t going to deny it. But Magnus was just waiting for Raphael to notice. To see the way Alec leaned a little too close to him. Or how he kept telling Magnus small complimentary things that would usually be reserved for Raphael.

Raphael himself didn’t appear to notice however. He just skated a little bit ahead of them and occasionally stopped to go on his phone, Alec’s chiming not long after.

“He keeps putting new songs on my phone,” Alec sighed. “Some of them are okay. But others I honestly can’t stand.”

“Well, it’s sweet anyway. It means he’s thinking about you,” Magnus salvaged, spying some of the songs on Alec’s phone played only a few minutes beforehand.

“I guess.” He knocked his shoulder playfully into Magnus’s. “What sort of music do you like then?”

That was a long winded and confusing conversation where Magnus attempted to explain the history of different genres and just how he didn’t have a specific favourite, but enjoyed certain beats more than others over the years. “They don’t sing like that anymore. Which in a way I’m thankful for, some of those ballads used to go on forever. But there was a certain magic about a few of them. One which I think the modern age has lost.”

“That’s kind of sad,” Alec said.

It was kind of sad. But time moved on and so must Magnus so he quickly put talk back on Alec and just how many suits were in that remodelled room slash walk in closet.

Turns out a lot.

Alec even took him up to show him when they got back to the hotel. “Simon was alright wasn’t he?” Magnus made sure. He didn’t actually hear why he’d been here.

Alec didn’t seem too bothered however, Raphael informing them from the doorway, “the fledgling is just having a little difficulty coming to terms with his new life.”

Which could mean anything. “Wasn’t he trying to get you to work with my family?” Alec asked.

“He was. But like I told you, if you don’t want anything to do with them then I won’t either. Simon will tire himself out eventually when he realises he isn’t getting anywhere.”

A sweet gesture. Yet another reason Magnus felt awful for dressing up. He loved Raphael and it was obvious the two of them were good together. 

“It’s not that I don’t want anything to do with all of them,” Alec grumbled.

“I know.”

Something passed between them. Whatever it was had Alec turning back to explaining the different components of Raphael’s walk in. The section that was Alec’s, which Magnus was honestly surprised to see at all, was a little more colourful than the one in Magnus’s world. Meaning there were some dark greens, blues and browns mixed in with the ordinary grays and blacks Magnus was used to seeing on Alexander. Another difference. Also the fact this one was a little skinnier. All that food must have been gearing up for another growth spurt since Alec was definitely muscled, but not to the extent the other was. His shoulders weren’t as broad and the runes scattered around his body still, burnt red into his skin instead of black, weren’t as many as Magnus was used to.

Ragnor visited the next day. Cat too. She was just as happy to see him as his dear old cabbage , immediately telling him everything he’d missed while he’d been... oh god, probably with his father. Ugh.

They told him all about their travels. The people they’d met. Camille, although their interaction with her was limited to dropping Raphael off at the clan whenever he was finished visiting them. They told him all about every little thing that, in Ragnor’s case at least, was better without Magnus around.

They didn’t tell him that of course. But Magnus could see how happy they were, how alive they were, and honestly couldn’t help but think it himself.

That wasn’t to say he was suicidal. Far from it. But he would remember just how much he did and didn’t affect when he got home.

“And you even got Alec up,” Cat said. “He’s been tip toeing around me for three years now.”

“Can you blame him?” Ragnor said, a suave grin on his face.

She whacked him gently on the arm. “Stop. You know he’s not like that. But honestly, it was nice to see him when we picked you up. Usually he's down in the basement.”

“The basement?” If he’d been a vampire for five years then why was he still in the basement? The thirst he should have had a handle on. While Magnus had seen some issues, Alec wasn’t outright lunging for Magnus’s throat. He had some control.

“Camille used to put him down there if she needed Raphael for some negotiation,” Cat rolled her eyes. “I'm all for safety but so long as they’re not werewolves Alec’s very well behaved. He knows how to keep to another floor anyway. He doesn’t need to be locked up.”

He didn’t know quite where to go with that. When he did the conversation had changed so much he didn’t remember to ask. Instead he let Cat tell him all about Lorenzo Ray and how he was seriously going to start a war with more shadowhunters if he didn’t start behaving.

“Honestly. He says he has our best interests at heart but the last time I asked to see that damn old healing book of his he charged me my old bracelet.”

“Not the sapphire one,” it had been a birthday gift from one of her old lovers.

“I’m afraid so.” 

Well, there went Magnus’s last shred of hope in Lorenzo.

Still, it was nice catching up. Much nicer than seeing Simon, once again, as he broke into the hotel. Namely because he mistook Magnus for one of the vampires in the hotel and proceeded to have a rant about Raphael and his leadership qualities. Which, firstly, Magnus just outright disagreed with. Anyone was better than Camille, that was true, but no one cared about the vampires like Raphael.

They were his substitute family, and Raphael had been taught from a young age that family was everything. He was the one who made sure the vampires had places to go if they wandered too far from the hotel. He was the one who actively went out and tried to find fledglings if one was suspected in the area. He was the one who encantoed police and family members and generally cleaned up after his clanmates because he was a good man, and one Magnus was proud to say, in his own universe, he had a hand in bringing up. Sure, Raphael was nineteen when he’d been turned, but to immortals that was practically an infant, and no one was an adult at nineteen. Not even in the fifties.

The second reason he objected to being yelled at was simple. He just, he didn’t like the blackness in Simon’s eyes when he was speaking. The anonymity. He knew, in theory, that he wasn’t at home. But it was still awful to see people he'd helped look at him like he was a stranger.

Which he was.

Something he realised he could use to his advantage as he walked away from this conversation. Or would have had Alec not appeared, practically looming over Simon.

“You'd do better to remember people can hear every word you say fledgling.”

Simon, because of course he had it was Simon, appeared to have actually forgotten that, and realised in a blink of wide eyes that if Alec had heard him then the rest of the hotel had as well. Namely Raphael. He started one of his usual rambles, Alec waving him off by taking Magnus by the arm and starting them to the upper floors.

“Sorry about him. He's still learning how things work around here.”

Magnus may have squeezed his hand a little where it was resting on Alec's arm.

Understanding after a beat, what had just been said. “Oh, no it’s fine. Like I said, I have one at home.”

“Still.” It looked like while Alec had a problem with what Simon was saying he had no problem at all talking shit about him when he could hear just as well too. Proven when he started on just why Simon never should have been kidnapped in the first place. “I mean, why the mundane? Why not Izzy? She wouldn’t have struggled. She’s smarter than that. And they could have interrogated her. And she would have been able to get herself out of trouble without almost killing half the clan.” He went on for a little while longer before, “I mean, I understand why Raphael went along with it. But why did it have to be that mundane? Why not that red head? She was practically one herself, and biting her would certainly have gotten Camille arrested.” He rolled his eyes after a moment, a dark look overcoming him as, Magnus guessed, Simon said something back to him He took Magnus to his own floor instead of the penthouse, falling into his usual chair before disappearing and reappearing with what looked like dinner. Sort of. Burnt dinner but definitely food. “I made this for you?” 

“You did,” Magnus agreed. Then when the shock had wore off he realised he was going to have to eat it.

He gave it his best go. Really he did, but Magnus eventually had to pull the ‘is that a [insert random thing he found in the room] over there,’ as he switched it out for something a little more edible.

“Mmm. Mm mm mmmm,” he pushed the tray away, “Yummy.”

“Really?” Alec grinned, “because Raph said you'd probably get food poisoning off it.”  
He swallowed down a burp, some vile concoction trying to escape his stomach.

“Oh. No. It was lovely.”

“Great.” He fiddled with his phone a few moments, switching songs most likely. He never seemed to be away from his earphones for some reason, before glancing up to ask, “You don’t maybe want to get dinner tomorrow do you? If you're still here that is. I know a few downworlder restaurants. You could wear one of your fancy shirts again.” Since these ones were almost always buttoned up these days.

Raphael chanted around his head as he considered it. Raphael was still on the scene. “I...” Alec’s face fell the longer the seconds dropped off. “you know what I’d love to.” 

He just didn’t learn.

Not with the roller rink and not with the dinner. He’d dressed up, per Alec’s request, and found himself blindsided again as Raphael was the one to lead them down to the restaurant. He didn’t know what was more awkward, the fact that Raphael was there or that Alec didn’t think it weird at all to tell Magnus how nice he looked while Raphael was still there.

The roller rink was one thing. It was loud in there. Not to mention they had an illusion of privacy when Alec was, he didn’t even want to call it flirting because that would just be wrong, but yes flirting. Here? With Raphael right there? Magnus didn’t think this could get worse.

Thankfully conversation that wasn’t compliments on Magnus’ attire were on his redecorating of his room. “Well Ragnor hasn’t exactly given me an exit date yet so, I figured I may as well do something with the apartment. I hope that’s alright.” He knew Alec had been the one to tell on him. Raphael hadn’t stepped foot inside the apartment since giving it to him. 

“I like it,” Alec said. “it looks all,” he wiggled his fingers.

“You don’t like my decor?” Raphael asked.  
Alec wisely didn’t answer that. Turning again on the changes Magnus had made to the hotel apartment. “Have you asked Ragnor for some of your stuff yet?”

“My...” oh, he hadn’t even thought about his things. He sort of figured they’d all been thrown out but, Magnus supposed Ragnor would keep some of them. Magnus himself kept most of Ragnor’s things when he... departed.

“I heard Ragnor mention it over the phone...” he seemed to realise maybe he shouldn’t have been listening in, if accidentally, when Raphael raised a brow at him. “Anyway, if you need help moving anything I have nothing better to do through the day. Mostly I just train.” Even turned it seemed some habits were hard to break.

“I'll keep that in mind.” Did Raphael not have Alec doing clan duties? He knew Lily was second in command at the hotel but Magnus was sure there were still things Alec, as co-ruler could do. Maybe Raphael didn’t want to show favouritism? 

Alec dropped more hints about spending more time together. Hints Raphael didn’t pick up on or care since he didn’t say anything, just drank whatever vampiric concoction was brought over.

At some point in the evening, and Magnus wasn’t sure when since he’d been in the middle of a story, Raphael slung his arm over Alec’s shoulder, hand curled around Alec’s shirt. It was just... he didn’t know. He shouldn’t be so bothered by it. The fact of the matter was that this wasn’t his Alec. This wasn’t his world and in this world Alec preferred Raphael. Loved him, probably. So things like this? He needed to move past it. Preferably before something happened he couldn’t take back.

Like a few days later where Alec had asked if he wanted to work out together and even without being able to sweat Alec was still in loose fitting clothes and pushing his limits.

He asked to spar and Magnus, weak to those doe eyes, had said yes. Meaning a lot of bodily contact. So much so Magnus was begging for a break, Alec making some quip about not getting tired anymore which Magnus certainly shouldn’t have been taking the way he did, imagining what else Alec didn’t need to rest for anymore. Then after gathering himself, telling himself he was being ridiculous, he found himself here, trapped against a wall as Alec kissed him.

It was... definitely a good kiss. Alec was gentle, not forcing Magnus’s head far back enough that it slammed against the wall. But he wasn’t packing Magnus either, making sure both of them knew that this was deliberate, that Alec wanted it, and .Magnus, well, he was helpless to it.

He didn’t even know the noises he was making, not until common sense kicked in and he heard himself saying, “Stop. We should- we should stop,” between kisses.

Alec didn’t even step back, mouth hovering, still tempting, a few centimetres away as he breathed, “Why?”

“Raphael?” Alec may be alright to forget the man but Magnus wasn’t.

Alec still didn’t pull away, Magnus feeling more than seeing the shrug he gave, “He knows.” He leaned down again, trapping Magnus in another kiss. 

One Magnus had to stop to make sure he understood, “He knows?”

“Yeah,” Alec nodded. “He was the one who told me to ask you out.” 

He wasn’t so much into the kissing after that, working his way around that statement.

Raphael knew? As in, he gave Alec the go ahead? Was Magnus being formally invited into some kind of triad? He’d, well, he'd had threesomes, sure, but triads never worked out well for people like him. He liked attention but Magnus didn’t think he’d ever see Raphael like that. He didn’t think even this Raphael that was apparently sexually active and leaning towards men liked Magnus like that either.

So, as much as he was enjoying this, Magnus had to push Alec back. “I don’t think I can do this.” He walked off before he could be tempted to stay, hurrying back to his room to curse Alexander Lightwood’s very existence.

Ragnor thought the whole thing hilarious when Magnus confessed it next time they met. Not so much the triad thing as believing Magnus was lying about the kiss. “it happened,” Magnus hissed.

“He doesn’t even go outside,” Ragnor laughed. “Come on Magnus.”

“He did though Magnus whined. 

Ragnor still didn’t believe him. He did, however, tell Magnus that if Alec really had kissed him then perhaps he should speak to him about it and not try and lie to his old friend. Which was sort of fair. Magnus may have been avoiding Alec. Or, more accurately, avoiding an uncomfortable conversation with Alec about Raphael and expectations and just things he didn’t want to think about. Or, more accurately, things he never thought about thinking about when, if, he ever won over Alexander. Which he had in one world apparently, and with minimal effort he may add. 

He sulked. A lot.

More so because Ragnor still hadn’t found a way to send him home.

He was sulking in the lounge, a glass of whisky in hand when Lily found him, warning him that if he wanted to avoid Alec he’d better get a move on because Simon was coming over again. Which was great. Not only was Simon coming over but everyone in the hotel knew that he was avoiding Alexander.

He got up anyway, scurrying away to his room. Only when the door had closed did he realise this may have been a trap.   
Alec wasn’t there, but Raphael was, indicating to a seat like this wasn’t Magnus’s supposed room he was invading. Magnus went over, bracing himself.

Raphael didn’t keep him waiting, “You’re messing my fledgling around.”

“it’s not intentional.” Not completely anyway.

Raphael didn’t believe him, levelling Magnus with a look his Raphael knew by now didn’t work. “You wear low shirts, you bat your eyelashes, your heartbeat flutters. You’re surrounded by vampires. We know attraction.” Meaning Alec did as well. “He's made things very easy for you, so if you are messing him around I suggest you stop.”

“It’s not like that,” he sighed, since Alec was probably listening in. Which led to Magnus copping out with, “I don’t know how long I'm going to be here for. He seems to forget this isn’t my world.”

To that he got an agreeing twist to Raphael’s mouth. Then, “He knows that. It’s not like he’s looking for long term.”

So that was it. Magnus had been reduced to a fleeting extra party in their bedroom. Well... actually. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

He didn’t want to be reduced to convenience but if this was all the Alec he was going to get then who was he to deny himself? He’d spent so long fixating on Alec that, if they’d actually dated, Magnus wasn’t sure he’d even still be with after a few months. He would like to think he would be. But reality and fantasy were always different, and Magnus hadn’t been lying when he said this was temporary. Maybe getting Alec out of his system here would let him work better with his own, married, version. 

It wasn’t like Alec wasn’t using him. Still, “Don’t take this the wrong way but how involved will you be in this?” maybe if he could shut Raphael off behind some kind of one way screen. Or get him in a position where Magnus could imagine it someone else.

“Unless said not to be probably a little.”  
Not a lot. Or taking charge. That, maybe, Magnus could handle. “Okay.”

“Good,” Raphael sighed, pushing himself up, his face making it took a lot of effort. “In that case Alec's outside and I have to deal with the nuisance upstairs.” He let Alec in as he left, Magnus hearing a low mutter pass between them.

Alec gave him a weird smile, lingering a little until Magnus told him he could sit. “So you’re not against me asking you out again?” 

Magnus shook his head, conjuring himself a drink. God he was getting himself into trouble. “Ask me out all you like.”

“Okay,” Alec grinned before his face fell, “the other Alec. He didn’t ask you-"

“No.” Magnus wasn’t counting that agreement to drinks either. Not when Alexander blew him off right after. “me and your counterpart are merely friends.”

Alec stood, “But you like him right?”

Delicate territory he was entering here. “Darling I didn’t know him. But even I have eyes.” 

That got a grin back on Alec’s face. It wasn’t a blatant admission that there was something, maybe, between them, but it also wasn’t negating the fact that Magnus found Alec attractive. Both Alec’s since Magnus couldn’t very well say one without the other.

There were differences, sure, but Alec was Alec and Alec was extremely pretty.  
Alec came little closer, face dipping to Magnus’s. “So if I ask you to the cinema, does that mean I can kiss you again?”

He felt a little tingly as he thought about closing the gap there and then. But, “After our date I don’t see why not.”

Alec pouted a little but raised himself back to his full height. “That’s fair,” he agreed, grabbing his phone that was still, even now, blaring music into his ear, and fiddling with it for a moment. “There’s three films playing. I'll let you choose.”

Magnus looked at all three options and honestly couldn’t care less. Alec wanted a date. A date and a kiss. For something short term he was pulling all the shots. He handed the phone back. “If Raphael will be coming,” which Magnus supposed he would be since he’d been on the last two. “how about we let him choose? It might make him less grumpy.”

Alec smothered a smile as he said, “He’s not grumpy. Half the time it’s just his face.” Something someone else who had rearing bitch face would say about someone. 

“Ah but the other half it’s not.” He waved it off before Alec could start defending Raphael. “It’s fine. I actually find it endearing.” In a way that was going to have to maybe see that grumpy face while having sex.

Urgh. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

There was no backing out of it now however. Not when Alec looked so happy that Magnus was going out with him. Or how he picked Magnus up the next night with a dark red dress shirt on, earphone still in, but arm outstretched like a true gentleman.

Raphael was in the lobby, not exactly dressed up but not looking too shabby either. The theatre they went to was one that had actually been knocked down twenty years ago, Magnus getting whiplash before remembering this wasn’t his world.   
Alec bought his popcorn, gentleman, also Magnus was broke so it was that or steal. He also suffered through Magnus’s repeated requests for his photo took when he realised this place had the old cut outs him and Cat used to mess around with when they came here. He almost told them to send them before remembering Cat wouldn’t have those memories.

Hmm.

Things picked up from there however. Sort of. Alec did the classic reaching into the popcorn bucket and accidentally getting Magnus’s hand. Did he just forget that vampires didn’t need to eat or was he hoping Magnus wouldn’t notice?

Either way he was holding hands with Alec. He was having his fingers fiddled with by Alec. 

Even with an eighteen year olds skin his hands were bow calloused. Strong, even without vampiric strength behind them. They way they shifted and moved had Magnus so distracted he didn’t realise the movie wasn’t in English until his brain registered the subtitles on the bottom.

Of course Raphael would choose a Spanish film, and it wasn’t like Magnus wasn’t fluent, Spanish was his second language. But Magnus wasn’t so sure about Alec. But, that was what subtitles were for. If Alec even looked at them. Framed in the dim cinema lighting, his eyes were almost always on their joined hands when Magnus looked. 

He didn’t keep them joined when they left, leaving Magnus’s hand momentarily to stick his earphone back in before taking it back. Surely he wasn’t that obsessed with keeping up with music.

Yet the earphone stayed in as they got dinner, Magnus’s seat being taken by Raphael before he could even think it. That arm was back, slung over Alec’s shoulder once more. But save that Raphael was content with playing on his phone as Alec chatted Magnus up.  
It was an okay night. The parts that were good were really good. Magnus got the full Alec Lightwood experience. That subtle charm he didn’t seem to be aware of. The jokes that Magnus was sure weren’t even meant to be jokes but Alec just had a way of telling stories that came out funny. The hand holding and how he made sure Magnus knew just how much Alec appreciated how he looked, how funny he, in turn was. Just little things that made up a date. One with Raphael always just right there.

When they got back to the hotel he walked with both of them to Magnus’s door before raising a brow, waiting for Alec’s tiny nod, before retreating to the elevator.

“Everything alright?” Magnus asked as the elevator dinged.

“Fine,” Alec said, stepping in a little closer. “you er, you said I couldn’t kiss you until after our second date right?”

Oh. The privacy. The subtle moves. Raphael must have read Magnus’s uncertainty for an audience. At least right now. How... sweet?

Still, Magnus wasn’t one to waste an opportunity. He tilted his chin up. “I did.”

He saw Alec swallow heavily before making sure, “I can right?”

Magnus yanked the man the rest of the way down, grinning ear to ear as he felt Alec’s lips meet his own. It was more playful than the last time. Magnus was alone for who knew how much longer with Alec and he was going to take advantage of it. So angled his head, pecking Alec a few times before taking that lower lip between his teeth and really diving into it.

A low moan sounded much too loud in the hallway, Magnus realising with a thrill it wasn’t him.

Alec was the one to break off this time. “Can we go in?” 

Magnus flicked his fingers, opening the door behind him easily and slipping in to his bed. Alec was quick to follow, kicking his shoes off before climbing next to Magnus. He quickly slotted them back together.

He had to admit, there was something nice about the way Alec kissed. It wasn’t at all like he thought it would be. All repressed passion and hard, reckless mouths. But then, Alec wasn’t repressed here. He had a boyfriend too. One who, loathe as Magnus was to admit it had probably taught him how to draw a kiss out like that.

It was good. More than good. 

Then Magnus moved his hand, skimming it onto Alec’s neck. He didn’t notice anything off, just a slight increase in Alec’s breathing. Nothing that didn’t usually happen when two people were untangling themselves like this.

Naturally, Magnus maybe wanted a little more than kissing. Nothing too heavy, he knew they had to save something for their other partner. Just, maybe, a little under the shirt action. He thought Alec did too, the way his breath hitched as Magnus dragged his hand lower. He got to the edge of Alec’s shirt, about to ask him if this was okay when something caught his lip, Alec hissing away.

“It’s fine.” Damn it he’d had vampire lovers before. He knew their fangs came out when they were excited. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt but, “really. It’s fine.”

Except it wasn’t. Not to Alec. He didn’t even stay in the room, bolting out of there, the door slamming behind him. 

Right, he remembered, Alec had a blood problem. Now he also had a sample of Magnus’s own blood for his palate. Urgh this was a mess.

He didn’t follow

As tempted as he was to walk up there and tell Alec everything would be fine he knew Alec wasn’t in the right state of mind to be hearing that. So Magnus stayed put, and in the morning, or, eight p.m. when the sun had set, he grabbed the shoes Alec had left the night before and trudged his way to the penthouse.

Lily answered the door. “They’re still asleep.” An uncommon thing for a man with a clan to run. “Alec was up half the day.”

Ah. “I came to give his shoes back.”

She nodded over to the master suite. “It’s not like they don’t know it’s you.” She wandered back to the bar she’d probably been standing at when he knocked.

Okay.

He considered leaving them at the door. But Lily had nodded to the room, and if she thought it was safe to go in then it had to be right? Probably. She was expecting him to go in too, and turning away would just be admitting there was something wrong. So Magnus tightened his grip on Alec’s shoes and strode over to his door.

The room was dark, naturally since they were allergic to sunlight. Still the light from the main room was enough to show a little of the bed. The two dark heads at the top, one buried in the other’s neck.

Intimate.

Magnus set the shoes down and left.

What was he doing? Seriously, what was he doing. He didn’t do things like this.

Yet there he was, wondering when next he would see Alec so he could apologise instead of saying it was unwise to try again.

Common sense tried to bully it’s way into his brain again and again and Magnus knew it was right. Yet there he was, a few days later, listening to Alec ask if they could maybe work just kiss for now.

“I,” he pointed at his teeth then flapped his hands around him.

Magnus got the gist of it, “Of course. I was only going to ask you the other day too. Consent is very sexy to me.”

Alec nodded, turning tail back to his own room shortly after.

He wasn’t really all too surprised to see they were supervised next time Alec wanted to be alone. Thankfully Alec didn’t want to do more than look through a photo album Ragnor had dropped off that morning. It was fascinating looking through his other life. Many of the memories were the same. Yet here and there were small differences that left Magnus wondering about the road less travelled.

The next time they were alone together was just... awkward. 

They were in the penthouse for one. Raphael was in his room for two. The third was knowing Raphael was keeping an ear on them as Alec captured Magnus in another kiss, pressing him slightly into the sofa behind him. It wasn’t ideal.

Magnus tried to ignore Raphael anyway, pretending the door was soundproof.

Pretending the entire hotel was soundproof actually.

He wished he had his loft.

Alec trailed to Magnus’s neck, his mouth sucking gently at the pulse point. Magnus tried not to tense but vampire or not if someone was sucking his neck he usually tensed a little. Alec didn’t seem to mind anyway, or be tempted as he moved on, kissing up to Magnus’s ear and back down like he had all the time in the world.

Which Magnus supposed he did here.  
He was just losing himself in it too when something clattered from the other room, Raphael appearing just as Alec popped his head up, Magnus witness to two identical twisted faces. It was a look he knew well.

“Let me guess. Simon?”

They both nodded.

“In that case,” before he could even stand however Alec had him behind the knees. Hoisting him up it was quick work to the room Raphael had literally just been in.  
The bedding underneath his back was soft. The room itself lit by a small lamp. There were piles of books on either side, the genre changing depending which one Magnus looked at. There was also a familiar teddy bear Magnus, in his world, had stolen from the Santiago home when Raphael decided he wanted to live at the hotel and not with his mother. In Magnus’s world it was kept at the loft. Raphael said it was safer there. He always said he felt safer at the loft. It was sort of sad to think Raphael didn’t have that safe place.

He had Ragnor. But the other Raphael had Ragnor too. The point was that Raphael had somewhere close he could always run to if things got too bad at the hotel.

He stopped thinking about beary after a few moments. Namely because Alec was back on him, hands fiddling with Magnus’s shirt.

“Maybe... maybe you could just take yours off?” Alec suggested.

Magnus processed that a moment. Alec hadn’t seemed shy in the other world about being shirtless. Here however he always seemed to have something on. Even a tank top when he was training. Magnus hadn’t thought too much about it at the time but if he was perpetually stuck as eighteen maybe he had a few insecurities about his body. 

“Okay.” He took it off for Alec, preening a little at the dark look Alec swept over him.

A gentle hand came next, hesitating a moment before touching. He let Alec go at his own pace, ignoring the fact he was on Raphael’s side of the bed and losing himself in the small kisses Alwc gave him every now and then. 

His hand moved up, a little bolder now, the cool temperature leaving tingle in their wake as he landed on Magnus’s chest. A single finger leaned across to brush his nipple. Alec raised his brows. Magnus leaned up, giving the go ahead. It wasn’t a finger that came back however, but one long swipe of a tongue. It came back as Magnus’s stopped himself from waking the entire hotel.

Mouthing over his skin, it did a full circle before latching onto his nipple and sucking.   
He tried not to hold much back, there was nothing worse than an unresponsive lover. But ears were everywhere here, and while not all of them wanted to listen in there was one in the next room who would be done with Simon at some point or another.

The fangs came out again, but Alec knew when to pull off, this time, before they broke skin. He looked very satisfied with himself when he glanced up at Magnus. “ You must get this a lot but you really are beautiful Magnus.”

He didn’t actually. Not sincere like that anyway. Not like it actually meant something to him. “I could say the same.”

Alec gave a shy smile before falling next to him and kissing him once more.

It felt very teenager ish what they were doing. Very innocent. Very simple. It was good. Great even. Magnus honestly couldn’t remember the last person who had just wanted to kiss him. It was sweet, and when it ended they didn’t lie there awkwardly. Instead Alec asked about Magnus’s day, genuinely interested in what he did while the hotel was asleep. In turn Alec told him about Raphael telling him he snored. “It’s not that bad. And he does it too.” Something Magnus knew from having Raphael over on occasion.

“I’m sure it’s tolerable.” Magnus knew if this were long term he would force himself to get used to it. It wasn’t like Alec could be any worse than Elijah. He could wake the dead with how loud he was when they were together.

Alec defended himself anyway. Then when Simon left he defended himself even more because Raphael slipped in to tell Magnus outright Alec was a dirty liar who “needs to stop hogging the bed covers or he's sleeping in Lily’s room.”

A strange concept. But one Alec pouted at all the same.

Ragnor called early the next morning, which for someone who'd spent all night with vampires was really pushing things right now. Nevertheless Magnus answered, and instead of the news about his spell home, he was invited to a party.

“Whose party?”

Lorenzo Ray's eight hundredth birthday party.

Liar. He was barely three hundred. Those warlocks who believed him were angling for something as well since no one in their right mind would believe Lorenzo Ray was eight hundred.

“Keep it down,” Cat told them.

“I’m just saying choose a more believable number. If Lorenzo was really eight hundred then surely Ragnor would have met him,” Magnus said, all of them knowing he spent his youth looking for warlocks like him.

“Besides, he'd probably a bit more advanced in magic if he was eight hundred,” Ragnor tacked on. “I don’t think he even knows how to portal.”

Cat levelled them another look, three of them crowded against the bar, “That’s because only you and me learned how to before...” Before Magnus snuffed it.

An interesting concept nevertheless. Only three warlocks in this world knew how to portal. How did the nephilim get around? Did they take trains and planes like mundane? Oh that was interesting.

Lorenzo made the rounds right as Cat threatened bodily harm, Magnus tacking on his most winning smile as Lorenzo introduced himself. “I don’t believe we've met. You must be one of the younger ones.”

“No,” he wasn’t starting a fight he was not starting a fight. “I just don’t frequent soirees as much as I did in my youth. Better things to do.”

Lorenzo's eye twitches. “Then consider me honoured you came here.”

“You must thank my friends, not me. They told me since I was hanging around New York I'd best learn the faces. You never know who you might need to depose.” He’d fight for his position tooth and nail if it came down to it. Lorenzo was just lucky this wasn’t Magnus’s world and hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

That swarmy smile stayed on Lorenzo's face but Magnus could see the challenge there. The proverbial gauntlet that had been thrown. “Quite.”

That was that.

The rest of the party passed as all warlock parties did. Everyone got a lot drunk and started bad mouthing each other to the point where duels were had or someone found a better party to get to.

Magnus ended up staying, if only because someone challenged Ragnor to skewer as many cheese balls as he could on his horns.

Two was the winner since anything after that broke apart too much to be considered a ball.  
The point was that he stumbled into the Du Mort far too drunk and woke up squashed between two chests. The first he knew from bandaging up, the second Magnus had only just become acquaintances with, and even then it was over a shirt.

He listened, hearing the snores from either side before leaning up and glancing at his phone. Still daylight then. He must have stumbled up here. Something that was becoming increasingly obvious as he spied the trail of socks and shoes Raphael definitely wouldn’t have allowed. Also that the two next to him were still somewhat entwined. Alec’s head resting on Raphael’s outstretched arm.

“Don’t worry, you just fell right to sleep,” had him jumping near ten feet in the air.

“Could you at least give me warning,” Magnus huffed.

Raphael poked one eye open, shutting it after a few half hearted glaring seconds. “You can stay if you like, but you’re going to have to move. He doesn’t wake up well.”

“Wh-?” he didn’t want to argue, or ask any big questions right now, so Magnus let Raphael shuffle to what he was assuming was his usual spot, arm completely burrowed under Alec’s head, the rest of him flopping over until he was laying on top of Alec’s body.   
Magnus had probably seen this and separated them out of spite. He hoped if he had said anything, since he didn’t once believe Raphael, that Alec, at least didn’t hear it. He could negotiate with Raphael. Not with Alec. Alec was uncharted territory. Especially a vampiric one.

He considered leaving, but Raphael had invited him and he honestly didn’t want to go.

So he didn’t. He spitefully curled up at Raphael’s back and passed out for a few hours.

Magnus honestly hadn’t thought much about Raphael’s offhand comment. He honestly thought it was just so he could go back to being cuddled while he slept. It turned out that was not the case.

Some few hours later Magnus wasn’t sure why he’d woken. All he knew was that the bed was shaking, Raphael was speaking and Alec was struggling to get away.

“It’s me,” Raphael yawned, Magnus spying him thrusting his arm closer to Alec’s face.  
Alec didn’t seem to listen, eyes blank as he fought his way around Raphael’s wrist again and again. 

“For-" Raphael huffed before grabbing Alec by the neck and forcing his wrist under Alec’s nose. It calmed him, strangely enough. “It’s just Magnus,” had Alec snapping back into the room, eyes searching until they landed on Magnus.

He gave a little wave, knowing that if Alec could still blush he probably would be right now. “I'm going to go shower,” Magnus said, having a feeling this would all go smoother without his presence.

It was a strange start to a strange day.

No sooner than Magnus finished his shower did he open his door to see Clary Fairchild on the other side. “Okay.” He checked down the hall, then back in his room. Nope. This was still the Du Mort, and those were his stolen luxuries. Yet Clary was still there. “Can I... help you?”

“My name is Clary Fray,” right been there done that. “Lorenzo Ray says that you’d be willing to help me.”

Snake!

“Did he now?” he should have seen this coming. Foist the upstart onto the Nephilim and hope they eat him alive.

“We need a warlock to help us-"

“Let me guess,” he wasn’t really all that involved with them for most of it. Just the dirty stuff they couldn’t be bothered to do themselves. Like steal a stele or heal a werewolf or portal them like a taxi across town. The only really important thing, save take Clary's memories was, “you want me to wake your mother up.”

Clary blinked up at him. “How did you know that?”

“I'm a warlock,” was the simplest answer. “and no. If you want that doing ask your resident high warlock.” Which in this world wasn’t him.

“But he sent me here.”

“And I’m sending you back with a message that if he really is as powerful as he claims to be then he should have no problem waking your mother now will he?” 

Clary made a face but even she couldn’t disagree with that logic. “I guess.” She turned to go, Magnus waving her and her insanity away from him before, “Oh! Before I forget, could you give this to Alec Lightwood?” she handed an envelope over.

“Why don’t you give it to him?” he wasn’t a messenger.

“He probably won’t see me. And Simon’s always too busy with vampire stuff to do it.” Strange. Magnus hadn’t seen him around here for a few days. Whatever vampire stuff it is probably doesn’t have anything to do with the DuMort. He should probably get Raphael on that. “Please?” she went on. “I know he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s alive but, I just thought he should know what’s going on.”

He took the envelope. “I won’t promise he'll read it.”

That was good enough for Clary however, the girl looking semi accomplished as she made her way out of the DuMort.

Magnus turned the envelope over in his hands a few times before trudging upstairs. After texting Ragnor, rapidly, a few times he eventually got some answers. Ragnor had been the one to tell Lorenzo where Magnus was staying after he'd been plied with enough drink to kill an elephant. 

He handed the envelope over when Alec appeared, still telling Ragnor what an idiotic thing it had been to reveal his location. What if Lorenzo started sending more people? More clients he couldn’t be bothered to handle? Magnus liked to think he was tough but both of them knew he caved faster than a six year old with candy if given half a chance.

He felt like screaming. 

“You don’t have to open it,” Magnus said. “They’re probably trying a different tactic to get to Raphael.” Get Alec and they would probably get Raphael after all.

“How did she even know I was here?” Alec mumbled.

“Simon saw you,” Raphael reminded him, already with his shoes on and looking up the find my iPhone app he’d had installed for Simon. “Your sister probably has photos of you.”

“Right.” There was a moment of hesitation before the envelope ripped and ripped again. “I don’t want to know.” He came to sit next to Magnus.

Raphael had a location, giving Alec a pointed goodbye and an estimation of how long he’d be gone before zipping away. “How very protective.” Was the estimated time even for Alec or was it for Magnus in case he did something against the rules before Raphael returned?

Who knew.

Not him.

Alec didn’t seem to think much of Raphael’s warning either, apologising for this morning before off handily reporting, “I wouldn’t mind waking up with you in the future. It just takes a while for my nose to recognise another person.”

Ah. That explained it then. Nephilim reactions in a vampire's body. Of course he'd react to the stranger in the room negatively.   
“I wouldn’t mind that either.” As much as this had been to prove to himself he didn’t need Alec in his life he was getting further and further entangled with him every day. Even if he did still have half his attention on Magnus at all times. The other half on that damn phone that was constantly in his ear.

Even when they were making out, since that was really what this was, it was still there, glaring music into Alec’s ear. He didn’t know whether to be frustrated or amused when his hand kept getting tangled in it.

Frustrated he decided, as Raphael came back earlier than expected with Simon in tow. The row that ensured was certainly not what he wanted when he came up here.

When he said argument, again it was mostly just Simon saying things and the rest of them suffering their way through it. At some point Alec latched himself to Magnus’s neck, obviously unbothered by their audience.

He wasn’t exactly shy, per se. But even Magnus had limits. Those being just sitting there and letting it happen.

He was going to have to at some point. He may as well get used to it now. 

So, like he said, a strange day. 

One that ended with him on Raphael’s side of the bed again, somehow. He didn’t really recall being talked into it, just that he was there. Present when Alec scooched up to him, Raphael not far behind, latching onto Alec before too much cuddling took place.  
Magnus honestly didn’t think he slept. The other two did. But Magnus? He just stayed awake, glancing to the side and imagining what it’s gonna be like when they eventually move onto the naked portion of this arrangement. He always thought Raphael would be the voter but what if he wasn’t? What if Magnus was? He knew- he knew okay that Raphael was attractive. But Magnus didn’t like him like that. It was almost paternal what he felt for Raphael. His Raphael with the sad eyes and loving personality. 

He didn’t think he could watch Raphael have sex. He didn’t think he could watch Alec have sex with someone else. It hurt enough as it was to know he'd probably performed his husbandly duty back in Magnus’s world. So this? He just- what was he getting himself into?

He had to end it.

It would hurt but Magnus didn’t think he could suffer through this if it got any deeper.  
So, tomorrow, he'd do it. He’d get out of here too. Find a place he could renovate. So what if it wasn’t legal? He was a warlock, he could do what he liked.

So. Tomorrow.

Alec snuffled closer, nose burrowing into Magnus’s side.

Maybe not tomorrow.

Maybe a few more days?

It wasn’t like Alec wanted to do more than kiss him anyway.

So Magnus tried to sleep, and eventually did, waking when a shove sent him to the floor.

He glared up, seeing nothing more than Raphael’s sleeping face and stretched out limbs. Obviously someone was still unaccustomed to sharing a bed. He nudged the vampire along until he was stretched across Alec, wondering when into the night the two had changed places.

It didn’t matter, Magnus was awake now, and he wasn’t too sure what to do with himself. Ragnor was always an option. So was biting the bullet and figuring out how he was going to break it off with Alec. Eventually fate had other plans in store for him however as he wandered down to his room to see Clary back at his door.

“I thought I told you to go see Lorenzo,” Magnus sighed, opening his door with a flick

She seemed to take that as an invitation since she certainly walked inside with no bother. “I did. He said he'd help. I'm here about Alec. You gave him my letter right?”

Ah. “Yes. I did and he tore it up.” From the look on biscuits face he’d been right about her trying to use Alec to get Raphael allied to their cause. “If I were you I’d leave this alone. Whatever you want the vampires for you're not going to get it. End of.”

Quite frankly he was sick of hearing about it too, and he only caught the tail end of whatever was bothering Simon that day. 

“I'm trying to help. It’s the least he could do for turning Simon.”

Magnus levelled her a look. In his world Raphael had just held the shovel. According to Isabelle it had been Clary that had buried him. He didn’t for one second believe it might be different here either. Not with the way Raphael looked at Simon. That same disbelief that he was going to be trapped with that loud mouth for all eternity. “If I were you I’d start taking responsibility for my actions. Raphael has nothing to do with the shadowhunters and that is how he wants it to stay.”

“But Valentine-"

“Is a shadowhunter problem. He’s not a downworlder is he?” this is what had annoyed him the first time around too.

“Well no but he’s targeting-"

“Downworlders yes, I know, I was there the first time too. But he's still a shadowhunter and if the Clave hate the idea of erasing downworlders from existence so much then they should be the ones to uphold their own laws. Don’t drag innocent people into a skirmish they could very well have no part of.” He’d already lost too much. He wasn’t losing it again here. Not when Ragnor had a lot more to live for now. That Raphael and Cat did too. This world was warped in many ways but his friends had found happiness regardless and Magnus would let them keep it if he was able to.

“I'm just trying to help,” Clary said.

“Well you’re not, and I’m busy and not a messenger pigeon. If you want to blackmail Alec do it to his face.” God knows he'd have the strength of will to shoot her down. 

She walked out, and Magnus felt like he was finally able to breathe. Clary and her messes. Well, Jocelyn and her mess. Sometimes Magnus wished he’d ignored the price tag she’d been willing to offer him. Dead he certainly seemed happier here.

Alec came to cosy up with him as Magnus searched for good, abandoned, buildings to set up a new lair. Why did he have to be so endearing? Those big eyes. That considerate ear. It was like he’d been made to torture Magnus, and considering who his father was maybe Magnus should look down that route at some point.

“You’re moving out?” Alec gathered after a few more flicks of Magnus’s phone.

“Well this was always meant to be temporary.” A few days that was now almost four months. “And I do miss being able to talk to myself without having twenty ears listening in.”

Alec nodded. “Makes sense. I know I miss having my own room. Or at least a room that isn’t the basement I can go to be alone.”

Magnus was glad there wasn’t resistance even if Alec didn’t fully know the other reasons Magnus needed to move out. Reasons that were being further and further forgotten as Alec helped him look for a new place, letting small stories about what he got up to in such and such a location from time to time. Then they just abandoned it altogether, Alec setting Magnus’s phone to the side so he could kiss him.

Again, slow, caring, very attentive in its execution. He may dislike the fact Raphael had taught Alec this but Magnus had to admit it was effective.

Very effective.

“Shirt?” Alec asked.

Magnus was quick to snap it off, wrapping his arms around Alec’s neck for a few more nips before letting the man do what he liked. Again nothing that crossed a line. It was very chaste. Playful. But bordering on innocent than leading to somewhere else.

He ended up with his shirt back on before lunch, skimming through new places to live with more regret in his stomach than anything else. With Alec there it was hard to think, to remember just why he couldn’t be with Alec. But it had to be done.

So Magnus tried distancing himself. He said he had to go look at buildings, which he did, and was too tired to spend time with Alec when he got back. Of course that just meant he ended up having naps with Alec instead, Alec attempting to stay awake later than he usually did so he could make the most of the hours Magnus could spare to be with him.

He hated how sweet that was.

When he finally had a building of his own, he begged magic exhaustion, which, again resulted in more naps and Alec asking if maybe Magnus could put it off until sundown so Alec could help and he wouldn’t be so tired. He tried furniture shopping. But then online shopping was a thing and Magnus wasn’t actually buying anything with money.

He tried decorating, by hand might he add, but Magnus was a weak man, and by the end of it all he just didn’t have a good enough reason for Alec not to be around.

“It looks great,” Alec grinned when Magnus caved and, of his own volition, asked Alec over. “I like the wall torch things.”

“Sconces?” Magnus rather liked them himself. It wasn’t completely like his old lair but it was him enough to feel like his own. “I can magic you up a few for your room if you like?”

Alec really must have liked them since he asked, “Please.” Magnus snapping his fingers and hoping they would be on Alec’s wall when he got back.

He took Alec on a tour, showing him the newly furnished wardrobe and vanity he was especially proud of. Not only because of the look but because he’d managed to magic almost all of his collection back to himself. No more guessing store brand names for him.

The bathroom he didn’t care much for. It was pretty and that was all that mattered.

“Potions lab,” he’d have to stock up on that personally but it could be done so he wasn’t too worried. The only thing he couldn’t replicate was his library. “I may have to break into Ragnor’s house for my books back. I know he has them. He hoards books like gold.”

“Or you could just ask for them.”

Magnus waved that suggestion off. “there’s no fun in just asking Alexander.”

Alec hid a smile.

“What?”

He waved Magnus off. “It’s nothing.”

Obviously it wasn’t. “Tell me.”

“It’s just,” Alec sighed, “You always call him Alexander and me Alec. I guess it was just nice to hear you speak about me the way you do him.”

Magnus hadn’t even known he did that. But he guess he did think more about this Alec than the other now. He knew this one more for starters, and... maybe he’d stopped latching onto what the other one couldn’t give him anymore. “I didn’t mean to make you feel inferior.”

Alec waved him off. “You didn’t.” He came over, leaning down to plant a grinning kiss to Magnus’s mouth, “he's not the one who gets to kiss you.”

“That's true.” 

Raphael wasn’t here either, meaning Magnus had Alec all to himself. Maybe not forever, and maybe he still was planning on breaking this up. But right now he was feeling very selfish and Alec was right there. It was all too easy grabbing that shirt and dragging him to the sofa.

Things may have got a little out of hand from there. Magnus may have been a little too desperate to have Alec to himself, and in a home that was definitely his with no ears around them he edged his hand down to the bottom of Alec’s shirt. Only to be stopped, again, Alec’s breaths heavy as he made up some excuse to leave the apartment. Never mind that the plan had been for Magnus to portal him back just after dawn.

That was that. Alec didn’t want him if Raphael wasn’t there. Or Magnus wasn’t allowed to touch him without Raphael’s consent. Either way he knew where he stood now, and what he had to do about it.

No excuses.

He braced himself for three days, making sure he had an answer to every out Alec might throw at him. Then he called Alec over, and only got the “thank you for coming,” part out before Alec was on his knees in front of him undoing his belt.

He didn’t really understand for a moment there. Nothing about what he'd said had indicated he would like Alec to come around and blow him. Yet there Alec was, doing his best to get Magnus’s zip down, mouthing along the seam as he did so.

“Wait,” he remembered to say. “wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.”

Alec sort of did. He stopped sucking anyway, but his hands continued their small exploration. “I know. I know you want more and I’m ready. I am. I swear.”

“Wait,” what? He stepped back, zipping himself back up. “I never said that. And you are far too nervous for someone’s who's supposedly ready so there’s no chance this is happening tonight.” Had he really given off that impression?

“But-"

Magnus snapped his fingers, the room doing a one eighty until the sofa was kicking at the back of his legs. “Sit.” 

Alec did. It took a moment but he got up eventually and sat on the chair behind him. 

“Now,” drinks were snapped, Magnus taking a long sip of his own. “What exactly gave you the impression you have tonight?”

Alec didn’t look at him for a long while. When he did Magnus could see Alec at least saw where he went wrong. Still, Alec bullied on anyway. “I know people expect sex. I know we've been dating long enough to have had sex by now and, I know you’ve been trying to push me away. I thought... I thought it was-"

“No,” he couldn’t even let Alec finish. “Alec I never want something you’re not ready for. Every relationship is different, and if you weren’t ready for us to be intimate like that then I can respect that.”

Alec rubbed his hands together, Magnus’s own twitching in case he wanted to flee. “You have been pushing me away though.”

“Not because of the sex,” if Alec had noticed it there was no point denying it. “I would never break up with someone because of that. Not unless they crossed a line but that’s a completely different story.”

Alec looked even more uncomfortable if it were possible. “Then why?”

Here it was. The crux of their meeting. “Because I don’t think I’m the kind of person who can share you.”

Something like fright came onto Alec's face. “Share me?”

“Raphael is nice and all but Alec, I think of him like a son. I've tried too. I’ve tried to make myself more comfortable with this but I just can’t. And I don’t want to make you choose because you’re obviously happy with him and that’s all I want for you." He could have dealt with Lydia, he could have, if Alec really was going to be happy with her.

Alec himself was quiet for a while. Then, “You think I’m dating Raphael?”

“Obviously.” 

Alec’s mouth twisted. “I’m not dating Raphael.”

Magnus snorted.

“I’m not.”

“You sleep together,” Magnus said, wondering what exactly Alec classed as dating.

“Yes. Just sleeping. He’s my sire, he makes me feel safe, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I don’t wake up well. I almost killed Lily the first time she tried waking me up.” 

Right. Okay. But, “He comes on our dates with us.”

“Because there’s werewolves everywhere in New York.”

Werewolves? “I don’t follow.”

Alec stood up, “I’m not dating Raphael. I like him, and maybe at one point I wanted to be with him but he's not interested in people. He said he was ace or something. The point is that he doesn’t like me like that and I don’t like him like that.”

“But-" literally everything they did they did together. 

Alec took his hands, “Magnus, I’m not dating Raphael. He's just been helping me date you because so far,” he waved around him, “I’m messing everything up.”

Magnus had a lot of things to say. A lot of things that needed explaining to him. But right then all he could think of was that he was Alec’s first choice. He wasn’t a rebound prize or someone to add to his list of suitors. Alec wanted to date him and only him and he’d been waiting far too long to hear that.

He clung onto Alec until his drink went warm, the two of them sitting down for their long, overdue, talk. Alec started at the beginning, about Raphael and how he became a vampire. At the end of it Magnus felt I’ll. He just, he felt ill thinking that happened to Alec.

It was six months after his eighteenth birthday that Alec came out to his family.

A lot of things had built up for him to tell them. Just plain exhaustion being one of them. Frustration too at them for wanting to sign him over to some girl. Mainly however, Alec put his coming out onto Raphael.

Ever since he was fourteen he’d sort of, maybe, had a thing for Jace. Jace was just, amazing. Strong, handsome, kind when he wanted to be, and Alec's best friend. It hadn’t been much of a problem. Not until Jace, at seventeen, started dating. Their bond was messing up almost every night, and Alec knew why it did it and he hated that it told him and that he knew why and that Jace wasn’t his and just himself for wanting Jace in the first place.

He’d been desperate, back then. Scared too. Jace would look at him sometimes and Alec knew they were getting closer to the day where Jace would address it. He’d tell Alec he was creepy and wrong and everything he already knew about himself.

So he'd been desperate. 

It wasn’t like he'd actually kissed someone before, and to his teenage mind he figured he couldn’t be gay until he knew for certain that he actually liked boys. He’d heard some things passed around now and then. Words like ace and pan and all sorts of sexual.

Maybe Alec was one of them. Maybe it was just Jace.

If it was just Jace, he could live with it. He could move on and focus on his career instead of fearing every time he turned a corner there might be a boy behind it ready to make him lose his entire life.

Illogical, maybe, since he had looked at other guys before. But if it wasn’t a kiss it didn’t count. So. Yeah.

Then he'd been out hunting.

It had been a slow night. Jace and Izzy were messing around more than helping him patrol. He was telling them, again, to behave just as Jace pulled his seraph. “Stay back vampire. If we have no reason to bring you in we won’t.”

The vamp just rolled his eyes, ignoring Jace to smile at Alec. “Alexander right?”

“Er...” eloquent. But he hadn’t really known how his name had made it’s way to the downworld. He wasn’t anyone special after all. Still, “yes?”

The vampire’s smile widened. “My name is Raphael Santiago of the DuMort. I was hoping we could talk. It’s important.”

“No-" he stopped Jace before he sent the vampire off.

They were there to help all things from demons. Meaning vampires too. “It’s important?” He made sure

Raphael nodded.

“Stay here.” He made sure of it as he followed Raphael a little ways away.  
It turned out he wanted blood. Mundane blood. Drugged mundane blood. “I would get it myself but I have a bit of a... addiction that I’m trying not to start up again.”

Alec nodded. Still, “I don’t think this is important.”

“It is.”

Helping a bunch of vampires get high wasn’t important to Alec, he explained, and had been about to walk away when Raphael hit him with, “I'll let you kiss me.”

He’d tried to play it off. But, well, there was something nice looking about Raphael. Not to mention Alec was desperate. So while he had said no, he still found himself a few days later standing in front of the Du Mort with twice as much as Raphael had asked for.

His first kiss, when it came, was outside the hotel. In the alley actually after Raphael had counted out the bottles and made them both sit on some crates. It had been gentle. No fangs at all. Just a soft brush of their mouths that had Alec melting in seconds.

Damn.

After that it became something of a thrill. They weren’t together, but whenever Raphael wanted something he’d find Alec and after Alec had delivered on his promise the two would find somewhere quiet and kiss. Sometimes briefly, sometimes Raphael would instruct him through it. Most of the time he just stood there and let Alec kiss him until the shame welled up so much he couldn’t stand the sight of the vampire. But he'd still answer Raphael when he called. 

Feelings, as they always did, followed. For him, anyway, he wasn’t too sure about Raphael. To him, Alec probably looked like a child he could use to manipulate. Which he was, and Alec knew that. But still, in his hopeless hormone addled brain he thought maybe there might be a little bit of fondness.

Raphael wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to, that Alec had learned in their brief moments together. So maybe this hope wasn’t completely unfounded.

Regardless, Alec had his answer now, and the next time his parents brought up marriage he just outright said it. “I'm gay. I'm never going to like a girl like that and if you tell me to try I'm leaving.” He’d already decided that. If they were going to cast him out anyway he may as well make the first step.

Except they didn’t. Mom didn’t care. Dad sort of did, but both of them said so long as they didn’t have to hear or see anything he did in private with another man then okay. Alec could just focus on his career. They had Izzy and Max, it wasn’t like the Lightwood name would never be passed on.

Then it happened.

Raphael asked to meet up and Alec may have gotten a little bit too frisky since Raphael’s lip was bleeding when they pulled away. He leaned forward sucking it a little, maybe knowing vampires had a thing for blood sucking from either party. Raphael didn’t look too phased, but he let Alec do it again without comment.

It was after, once Raphael had his recent import of blood, moving on from high mundanes to just plain blood in general for his stash, when Alec was knocked out. So on top of the world he was that he hadn’t realised he’d been followed. Had been for a few days.

The next few days weren’t good.

The werewolves that had taken him were part of some illegal underground trafficking ring. His stele was gone meaning the drugs in his system took hold. But he was still aware of everything. Of the dark rooms. The wolves around him. The mundanes that paid to get in. 

Torture, rape and still the worst part was when they took his runes. The downworlders loved it. The mundanes didn’t fully understand but the downworlders did. They took his swift footed rune, his enhanced hearing, and, the one Alec remembered burning through to his very soul, his parabatai rune.

Wolves talked however. Especially ones trying to drum up a crowd. So a nephilim on show was bound to reach Raphael sooner or later. He ended up taking Alec. Paying a hefty sum for a ‘good time’ before walking him slowly home.

“I can only take you a few streets away. Dawn’s coming.” 

So Alec phoned his dad. He told him all he could as Raphael helped him home. He drank a little too when prompted. Vampire’s had healing abilities. Either through spit or blood and Raphael didn’t have time to be licking Alec’s missing wounds. Or the strength to stop if it came down to it. So Alec drank a little and had never been as happy as he was when he made it home.

His dad met him out back near the graveyard. They’d had patrols out looking for him. “We thought you were dead.” His arms tightened a little at that.

Alec couldn’t say anything back. He just wanted mom and his bed. 

Dad on the other hand had to know, “these people, do they have... Alec do they have videos of you? Do they know your face?”

Alec nodded, knowing he'd heard more than one person take a photo. “I just want to go to bed.”

“I know,” Dad sighed, brushing his hair back. “I know, here,” he helped Alec sit, grabbing him from behind so his missing runes wouldn’t hit the stone. It hurt anyway, Alec just wanting to go inside. He wanted Jace. He wanted Izzy and an iratze and Max. “Are you sure though?”

“Dad!”

“Okay,” his dad agreed, brushing his hair back again. “it’s gonna be fine.” He lingered at the back, gripping Alec’s head a little. There was a nasty cut there, one that stung the longer his dad looked at it. “Okay.” 

The next thing he knew there was a dagger and his throat was opening up. He woke that night in a shallow grave outside the Institute baying for blood. When Raphael found him, again, it was on the news, Alec having been brought in for the murder of seven mundanes. Apparently some of the cops at the precinct were familiar to Alec, however. Meaning that when Raphael got there he was witness to a massacre. Everyone save Luke Greymark, Alec having seen him since, was killed. Sixty nine men and women. Some of them back up even, Alec had killed. He drained the first few, Magnus saw when Alec brought the file case up on his phone, but the rest were just savaged.

“I thought he was going after them.” Alec shrugged, mind still on Robert. “turns out he just wanted to know how many people saw a Lightwood take it from a man.”

Magnus felt sick.

“Raphael’s been good about it. He was the only one I knew that hadn’t betrayed me. He always told me what he wanted. Never made it a secret. Even when I came here,” Alec sighed. “He used to come down and visit me in the basement. Train me, I guess, to calm down for him. I was his new body guard.” He explained about how the drugged blood had been an attempt to take Camille down. One that had failed and resulted in Raphael’s demotion. With Alec there, a nephilim, trained to kill turned vampire who they had proof could tear wolves apart like nothing, Camille quickly reinstated him. After a while.  
“She thought I was his boyfriend,” Alec laughed, probably realising how many other people had made that assumption too by now. “I mean, I guess I can see why she thought that. But Raphael’s not really interested in people. Not sexually anyway. He said he did like kissing me and all. I think he just likes the company.”

“So you and him are just pretending to be a couple?” Would Magnus have to fit in there too or? It was different now he knew he wasn’t explicitly sharing Alec.

Alec shrugged. “We were. But everyone at the hotel knows it was just to get back at Camille."

Magnus made sure “So you just share a bed then?”

Alec ran his hand through his hair. “I mean, you've seen me wake up. Especially with new scents in the room. Raphael’s harmless too, and he has me, well, trained like I said. The music helps too.”

He nodded like he knew that all along, his mind screaming at him as things finally made sense. The music, Raphael adding songs so Alec didn’t drown them out like someone might do if they’d listened to it a hundred times on repeat. The accompaniment on dates. Especially the one at the downworld restaurant. There had to be werewolves there. How Alec even went outside was a show of strength of will. The missing runes. The jittery way he ran when things got a little heated. It all made sense, and it was all a lot sadder than Magnus had ever thought it would be.

“I'm trying though,” Alec told him. “Especially now you’re here.”

Flatterer.

Alec swallowed a few times before asking, “this doesn’t change anything does it?”

“Change...?” well they couldn’t very well have sex anymore. Not right off the bat anyway. Maybe not ever. The whole point of sort of being involved with Raphael was that he didn’t have a want to use Alec like that. He was basically the perfect man for Alec back then. Magnus didn’t doubt either there may have been some kissing afterwards. But he knew it wasn’t romantic. He could tell from the way Alec twitched around him that it would have been to prove a point to himself that he could still want people. 

Magnus also would have to change some of his expectations. Work with Alec and not be too distracted by the sullen vampire with them to notice that Raphael wasn’t being possessive, he was reminding Alec that everything was fine, that the guy who had come for him in his time of need, both times, was there when danger was telling his mind to lash out.

That whole massacre thing too. He understood why it happened. The torture. Robert. The broken parabatai bond. Every single one of them would have broken a newborn. Together? Alec’s psyche at that time must have been horrific. Especially with the newborn thirst. It heightened everything. Hunger, senses and emotions. 

Still, that wasn’t what Alec was asking. “No. No definitely not. I like you. All of you.” And it wasn’t like the other Alec was a saint. 

“Yeah?”

Magnus nodded. “It’s just going to take some adjusting. For example, I’m sure I have a spell somewhere that can temporarily remove your sense of smell. It might be a little uncomfortable but if you think it would make you more at ease in public I have no problem performing it.”

A slow smile crept onto Alec’s face. “Really?”

He wasn't just talking about the spell. “I told you. I like you.” And now he could have Alec a all to himself. Also, “Don’t ever think if I’m upset with you it’s sex related. I don’t care if we never have sex Alec. I just like being with you. And if you tell me when things are too much then I’ll back off. I swear.” He’d still have to put other things in place however. Things to make Alec feel safe. Things that didn’t lead to violence.

“Raphael did tell me I was being stupid,” Alec grumbled.

“Well on this occasion,” and many others Magnus wasn’t admitting to, “Raphael was right. You were being stupid. You need to talk to me.”

Alec nodded. “You too.” He reminded Magnus, “I wasn’t the only one with the wrong idea.”

True.

They talked a little more, Magnus getting a better understanding of Alec’s limits. He asked to see the runes. Outside of making out Alec was hesitant but he took his shirt off, letting Magnus see where the skin was clear. The only place it hadn’t been fully removed was the parabatai bond that wasn’t burned red like the others that still stood on Alec’s skin. This one looked like it had been carved just recently, the skin broken and red and looking like any second it would ooze out.

The bond went soul deep, but the rune was important anyway. Alec said it didn’t hurt when Magnus touched it, the bond fully severed now he was a vampire. But before, when he'd been human, it would probably have been the only rune they couldn’t take from him. Not fully.  
Poor Jace.

Magnus didn’t like the boy all that much but even he felt for him. The pain of Alec in danger, of being taken from him twice over. If Jace wasn’t a little more messed up in this world Magnus would be surprised.

He flicked through Alec’s phone after that, filtering through the ever changing music playlist. It wasn’t constantly playing, Magnus learned. Just when Alec was around people with a pulse did he have it in. Distraction and redirection. Magnus had to hand it to Raphael did his best and it had paid off.

“You’re not going to treat me like a project are you?” Alec asked later. “because I don’t want to be that to you. Because I'm doing fine”

Maybe if Alec hadn’t said that he would have become one. But, “No. Definitely not. But I am going to get you that spell. If only because I want you to be more comfortable when we go out dancing.”

“Dancing?”

While the Alec back in Magnus’s world, so he'd been told, wasn’t one for clubs or dancing, this one wasn’t adverse to it.

Meaning Raphael had taught him some Latin dances when the two of them had been bored. He wasn’t the best. In fact he stepped on Magnus’s toes quite a lot, but he had the general rhythm down, and knew all the words to some of the songs.

“Tu hablos Español? Magnus asked  
Alec nodded, “Mom taught it to us when we were younger. She lived in Spain after Idris until I was born. Raphael prefers it at the hotel as well.”

Magnus knew. It was one thing they’d bonded over in their early days. It was like their own secret code. Speaking Spanish to each other if they didn’t want the rest of the world to know what they were saying. “I bet both of you insult people to their faces with it.” Raphael certainly did. The way he spoke in general allowed him to get away with it.  
Alec didn’t deny it either, and the picture of the two of them casually insulting people in Spanish had Magnus laughing. Something that it might not have done aa week ago.

The spell was working fine anyway. Great actually, Alec not needing his phone at all as Magnus walked him through another complicated dance his long legs were having trouble keeping up with. 

By the end of the night, Alec wasn’t much better but Magnus would be happy taking him out to a proper dance hall at some point. “Are you sure it’s holding?” Magnus made sure as he snapped the music off

Alec nodded, “Can’t smell a thing.” It was something of a test run before they hit the big leagues. Right now Magnus had filled his apartment with as many different overpowering smells he could think of, some of them giving him a headache. But Alec didn’t look to be lying.

Magnus narrowed his eyes anyway, picking up a small blanket and hovering it under Alec’s nose. “Anything?”

Alec even took a sniff before shaking his head. “Why what is it?”

“One of my cats blankets. She spayed on it the other day and I’ve been meaning to get it washed.” 

Alec’s face twisted before he even finished. “Magnus!”

“What? Cats stink. How else am I supposed to make sure it works?” his cats stunk anyway. Some of them needed to remember their manners when coming into his home.

“I didn’t even know you had cats.”

“Well I don’t have them. They’re free to come and go. But a few are in the bedroom right now if you look.” He was surprised Alec hadn’t heard their little heartbeats.

Or maybe he had. “Is that what that is? I thought you had birds.”

“Why would I have birds?”

Alec shrugged, “Spells and stuff? Magicians have birds. And I did hear about a few warlocks who kept them.”

“As pets.” And he wasn’t a magician. He was a warlock. A powerful, immortal warlock. 

“Well...” Alec floundered.

Magnus went over to his door, opening it a slither and watching one of his new friends come to see who else was in their apartment. 

Alec didn’t eat the little thing so he saw it as a win.

Even better, him and Raphael had little cat treats for the next time they all went out together. He didn’t know why it meant so much to him but it did.

“I'm telling you we’re dating,” Magnus tried to tell his friends the week after.

They weren’t having it. Cat was adamant that Alec wasn’t interested, while Ragnor just sat there judging him the whole time with a look. 

“Why is it so hard to believe? Just ask him. Ask Raphael. Phone Raphael up right now and ask him.” Actually maybe not because Raphael could be a dirty liar when he wanted to be.

“Magnus, the boy can barely stomach being in the same room as us, and we’ve known him longer than you. Don’t try and bring him into whatever little fantasy you have about impressing us.”

What? “Impressing you? I’m just telling you about my life.”

“Yes, and it’s alright to not be doing okay,” Cat said, “We know this is a big adjustment for you. You don’t need to tell us some wild story. We love you no matter what.”

Oh. He saw where this was going. Mental health and all that. Nothing he said regarding Alec would be taken seriously with them. They thought he was doing it to cope, and from the sounds of things his alternate self might have done the reality of it when he’d been alive.

Meaning for the next three hours instead of lavishing them with tales about how amazing he felt now he finally had Alexander Lightwood as his boyfriend, he listened to Cat talk about mental health. Pamphlets were pushed his way. Numbers of specialists. They even reiterated that they were there to listen if he needed it. So when Magnus did return home he felt much more down than he had going out.

Wonderful.

They did touch upon one thing he needed to do however. Get a hobby, they said. Find something to do with his time. Magnus had been thinking about opening himself up for business for a while now. He’d have to start out with strictly spells until he could get some potion suppliers but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before.

He started at the DuMort. Free of charge of course. They were his word of mouth, and if he got good reviews off them then the people they hung around with would want to do business with him. So he spelled, quite a few actually, vampires to loose their sense of smell for a few hours at a time. Others he helped with regrowing their hair, since once it was cut, unless one had magic, that was it for the rest of their lives. He did a few tracking spells. A few regrown teeth, nails, ear for one vampire he learned had been one of Alec’s victims, and before he knew it he had a full book of potential clients.

“And they pay you... what?” Alec asked. He flipped a few more pages, Magnus newest guest sprawled purring on his chest. 

“Whatever I ask. For example,” he turned it back to Penelope Grace. “She has a bracelet I want. Lorenzo Ray gave it to her as a courting gift a few years ago. They didn’t stay in touch but I know she still has it.”

“And you’re going to ask for it?” like the idea of asking for jewellery was absurd. Which it probably was in this day and age.

“It’s Cat’s. She got it as a parting gift from a very prominent lover. It meant the world to her.”

Alec nodded. “You are asking for some money though?”

Magnus shrugged, “For those who have little else to offer. But I find things often hold more value than money. Why? What do you want?” he took the book off Alec, setting it, and the cat, to the side so he could crawl on that chest.

Alec let it happen. So long as it wasn’t sexually charged, and Magnus gave him some sort of warning, he was okay with it. “Nothing.”

“Liar,” Magnus huffed, closing his eyes against Alec’s sweater.

A hand started combing through his hair. Alec eventually saying, “There’s this seelie. I saw his name in there. He used to date my sister.”

“Meliorn?” Magnus guessed.

“No?” Oh. Different worlds Magnus supposed. Or maybe it was someone before Meliorn. “Willow? Anyway. He sort of has this necklace he tricked Izzy out of. It was our great, great something grandmothers. It meant a lot to her.”

“I'll see what I can do.”

That was good enough to get him a cuddle.

When he did meet with Willow, a blonde condescending seelie, that following Friday he managed to finesse the necklace alongside a little sum of his own for a rather complicated gardening spell. Almost as soon as it was in his hands he knew why Willow would have wanted it. It was made from the same material shadowhunters made their weapons from. It glowed dimly in Magnus’s hand, and probably in Willow's too. But it never hurt to have something that reminded others just who their ancestors were.

Alec was overjoyed to have it back regardless, the necklace shining a little brighter in his hands but not to the extent it would in Isabelle’s. “I can’t believe you got it.” 

Magnus shrugged, but happily accepted his prize of a good shirtless session when it came.

They didn’t sleep together, no matter how much Magnus could see Alec wanted to ask to stay. Unless Raphael was with them, Alec didn’t trust himself, meaning sleepovers, when they happened, were left to the hotel. Magnus took great pleasure in them when they did happen. Now he knew Raphael was harmless he spent every second he could telling him stories about how cute, and similar, he was with his counterpart.

“He’s just my widdle grumpy vampire,” Magnus cooed.

Raphael glowered back, the effect ruined by the blanket up to his chin. He looked like a petulant child. Something Magnus had no problem telling him.

If he really minded Magnus knew he would have said something. But Raphael didn’t because he didn’t have a lot of friends in his life, and Magnus, while a sort of stranger at this point, was still someone who knew him. Really knew him, and he appreciated the trust Magnus had with his counterpart if not here.  
Hence why he put up with the teasing. The early wake up calls too when he pushed Magnus out of bed in his sleep, Magnus getting him back.

Or maybe it was all for Alec’s sake. Magnus knew he put up with a lot on that front too. Like letting them use the penthouse bathroom. 

Magnus stopped himself from popping the bubbles in front of him. It was hard, but this wasn’t about having a nice relaxing bubble bath. It was about Alec. About what he wanted. About how Alec had come up to him the other day and proposed they try and take things a little further on the physical side. Alec made sure to tell him it had nothing to do with feeling pressured or thinking Magnus was losing interest. “I want to... do things with you. It’s just hard finding out how,” Alec explained.

Hence being here, in the penthouse bathroom, in the bath, with Alec across from him. Magnus had suggested grinding, that was always fun. But Alec had explained that he would be tempted to look down and when he looked down he wouldn’t see Magnus he'd just see clothes, and being naked wasn’t going to help right now either. So, a bubble bath. A way to obscure things beneath them, and keep Alec’s attention up instead of down.  
Genius really. Magnus just hoped it worked.

He eventually gave in and popped a bubble with his tongue, reeling back as the awful taste of bubble bath hit his throat. Alec, who'd been taking careful breaths, pulled a face at him before laughing. “It’s bubble bath what were you expecting?”

“I don’t know,” his brain made it seem like fun. It did that sometimes and he never forgave it. 

Nevertheless it had diffused the room a little, Alec not looking so scared as he deflated a few bubbles out of Magnus’s reach. Fair.  
Alec kissed him to make up for it, Magnus wrapping his arms around Alec’s neck until he could smooth a few bubbles in his hair. He made it stand up, and ended up with a beard himself when Alec got him back. They messed around until both of them were covered in bubbles and Alec realised he’d been rubbing himself against Magnus’s hip. 

The wide eyes were the first clue that panic was setting in. Magnus didn’t try to distract him. Kissing would do no good here, he also kept his hands to himself. He nosed forward until he had Alec’s eyes back on his own.

“Feels good right?” he kept his stomach very still. “I want you to feel good. You’re allowed to.”

Alec glanced down, and the bubbles really did work since he met Magnus’s gaze again after a second.

“Just do it,” Magnus said. “I don’t mind. I want you to.”

It took a few more seconds of Alec figuring himself out before his hips moved, and Magnus felt the drag of Alec’s cock against his skin. Magnus kept talking. He kept still but he made sure Alec knew he was there, that he wanted it, that he was enjoying it too since, why wouldn’t he be? Alec was a sight. 

He stuck through it all until Alec came, surprised, like he didn’t think he would. He looked exhausted when he was done, leaning his head on Magnus’s shoulder. “You can get out if you like?” Process the good memories while they were still good and not over thought in his mind.

Yet Alec shook his head, “Need to get used to you.” His smell. Replace Raphael’s with Magnus’s. Also, “You need to cum too.”

“It’s fine.” He could do so at home. Well away from all of this.

Yet Alec shook his head again. “You can do it here if you like. Raphael sometimes let me stay while he did it."

“He did?” Magnus supposed he could see the logic. Alec would have been desperate to prove he could still feel arousal, and Raphael still touched himself even if he didn’t want anyone else to. It was sort of a win win. Besides, Alec had told him he didn’t have a problem with both of them doing their own thing, it was when their things crossed over, when touching was involved or Alec got a bit confused about who he was with. The Raphael thing made sense too. Alec knew him by smell alone. He didn’t need to see Raphael’s face to know it was him. Raphael had him trained after all.

Alec nodded against his shoulder, “I wasn’t allowed to look at his face. Or talk. Or breathe really. But we'd... you know. He sometimes let me bite his thigh as well.”  
Which was a visual that gave him an odd response. If he didn’t think about it as Raphael specifically the image of Alec with his head leaning against someone’s thigh as he watched them get off, his own hand working furiously on himself, was kind of hot.

“You like watching?” it was probably the only thing he could like.

Alec nodded anyway. “Didn’t have porn growing up. Not that kind. Used to just focus on the guy part when Jace showed me a video on his phone.”

Magnus hummed. The biting was a no no. But at some point he was sure he wouldn’t mind having Ale watch him get off. Right now however. “I think I’m okay.” He just wanted to enjoy the warm water. “Can I touch your hair?”

Alec gave a long sniff before admitting, “In a second?”

Magnus waited as long as he needed to before threading his hands through Alec’s wet hair, the two of them relaxing in the bathtub.

The bathtub sessions grew more frequent after that. Not to excess. But Alec invited him around for one at least every two weeks. They weren’t any different from the first. Magnus wasn’t allowed to touch. He had to speak, and make sure Alec was watching him, but it was good. Interesting. He certainly had never felt as flattered as he did knowing that Alec was cumming to the sight of him alone. No hand job. No mouth or ass. Just looking at him.

It certainly boosted his ego a little.

Alec always made sure to smell him after too. Training his brain to think pleasure when it smelled Magnus. Another flattering thing. Especially when he didn’t always smell like roses.

“Let me shower first,” he’d been in the sun all day and sweated through his good shirt. Magnus may be magical but even he felt the heat and it was hot today. Alec wasn’t having it however, fighting Magnus’s half hearted attempts to get away to duck his head right under Magnus’s arm pit. “No!”

Alec laughed letting him go, “You’re right. I think you do need a shower.”

“Ass.” He stripped off there and then, holding his middle finger up the entire walk back to his room. He had an image to uphold, and it wasn’t fair that he was the only one in this relationship that had to worry about body odour.

Alec thought the whole thing hilarious when Magnus complained later. “It’s cute,” Alec said. “Makes me see that you’re just as susceptible to human error as the rest of the world.”

“Sweating is not cute.” It made his hair frizz and flop. It ran his makeup and made him generally uncomfortable. “You’re only saying that because you don’t have to anymore.”

“Maybe,” Alec grinned, pulling Magnus down to the sofa. “I still think you’re cute though.”  
He grumbled a little but let Alec continue lavishing him with affection.

It was another sweaty, hot day, when Magnus returned home before going to the hotel when he found four shadowhunters in his home. Clary didn’t even wait for the door to close before she was hugging Magnus tight to her. “Thank God.”

His Clary. Other Clary. The one from his own wold. He knew that because there was no way Alec Lightwood could be in his home right now. The sun was still up, and if

Magnus looked he could see the differences between this and his younger teenage body.

“How are you here?” how weren’t they assimilated into their counterparts bodies?

“Catarina Loss brought us,” Clary said, finally pulling back to drag the sleeve of her arm up, “and I made this so we don’t have another mundane moment.”

“Are you really alright?” Isabelle asked, next to come and hug him.

“Not too sure.” What did she mean she made a rune? “Catarina brought you here?”

Clary nodded, “The spell's really easy actually. She said she made it up not long after you started portals.” 

Right. Now he remembered. He just never thought to write the damn thing down. The question was if it were easy, and if Cat had made it that shortly after his revelation in that world, then why was he still in this one? Why had she kept it from him?

“Right we have him,” Jace said, “Can we leave now?”

Isabelle rolled her eyes, “He just doesn’t want to go mundane,” she told Magnus.

“I liked you mundane,” Clary said, “you were all sweet and sensitive.”

“Maybe we should undo the rune around him then,” Isabelle suggested.

Jace must have been really worried about that happening since he took the joke worse than he always did. When he was done, he near shoved a piece of paper in Magnus’s hands, a familiar spell staring up at him.

“Let’s go,” Jace barked.

“Now hold on a second,” this was all going so fast. He put himself further into the room. A big mistake when he drew nearer Alec, larger and broader than Magnus was used to. He really did tower didn’t he. 

“We don’t have time to hold on Magnus,” Jace barked, “Now use the damn spell. I want to get out of here.”

“Well maybe I don’t,” was the crux of it.

“Maybe I want to stay.”

Clary was the nominated one to tell him after a bunch of dark loops that, “Magnus if you stay here you'll probably be assimilated into your other self. Your magic has held out so far but-"

“My other self is dead biscuit. No body to assimilate too means I get free reign here, “ it was only of the counterpart was alive that the two tried to merge. Hopefully. Magnus hadn’t felt an urge to take a really long sleep anyway.

Another series of looks that had Clary trying again, “But this isn’t your world. Don’t you miss everyone?”

“Who's there to miss? I like it here, I want to stay here. But I'll gladly send all four of you back,” or maybe call Cat to do it. It was her spell after all.

They seemed to be floundering for more arguments so Magnus left them to it. He didn’t bother showering. Instead he changed his shirt and went on his merry way to the DuMort.

Alec, other Alec, was on high alert when Magnus walked in. “You smell like Jace.”  
He supposed he probably did. That boy put far too much cologne on for one day. It was a wonder he got all those ladies with how overpowering it was. “It’s not your Jace. It seems my world has finally come for me.”

That had Alec on even higher alert. He tried to play it cool however, following Magnus into the bathroom to say, “Seems a bit strange doesn’t it?”

“What does?” he needed a nice hot bubble bath after that stress. 

“That they come for you now. It’s been half a year. You'd think if it was really important they’d have come for you straight away.”

As harsh as that was, it was actually true. If they’d needed him so much, if they’d been that concerned about him more importantly, then why did they wait six months? Half a year was a long time. Either they were having trouble finding that spell or he’d been rather low on their priority list.

He added bath salts. He needed the tension diffuser.

Alec suggested a few things about why they might be here now. Magnus knew Alec was subtly trying to tell him not to go, but he still made some damn good points. Eventually Alec spelled it out for him however. “I don’t want you to go.” 

“I don’t want to go either.”

Alec kissed him as to further prove what he would lose if he went home. Magnus was happy here. Yes, it wasn’t his Raphael or his Cat and Ragnor. But they were his friends. He had a lifetime to relearn them. He had forever to spend with Alec here. Back home? He loved his friends, he did, but they had their own lives. The last time he heard from Cat was when they were hiding from Valentine. She had patients and boyfriends and an actual grown up life that didn’t have room for Magnus inside it. Raphael had the hotel, and while he worried about that boy he didn’t need Magnus either.

He was alone in that universe. Partying until god knows what time. Then what? Some clients? Hiding from another crazed shadowhunter? At least in this world it wasn’t his job to rally warlocks. He’d enjoyed his title, but when it led to people dying because of his mistakes or who he associated with the stress of it all got to him. He’d needed a vacation for a long time, and starting from scratch wasn’t that exactly, but it did make him feel happy again.

Alec kissed him again, stiffening after a second and poking his head up.

“What?”

Alec cocked his head to the side, “I think your shadowhunters followed you.”

Of course they did.

Alec scowled after a moment, “Yes I heard... I don’t know he hasn’t said anything...you can hear as well as I can does it look like I’ve asked him?”

Ah vampire hearing. He stretched his legs out, poking his toes into some bubbles. The others were going to come in whether

Raphael let them or not so, “Just let them in.”  
Alec nodded, hopping up. “I have to go to the basement then. Nephilim blood...”

“I can spell your nose,” Magnus reminded him, sitting up to do just that, realising after that, “You just don’t want to see them do you?”

Alec shrugged. “Might be a little awkward.”  
That was true but, “This is your world. You can stay if you like.”

Alec did, after a moment, zipping to his room and back with his phone and a rather sizeable bite mark on his arm. “He does it sometimes if he thinks I’ll get overwhelmed.”  
Right. Vampire venom and all that. It didn’t get vampires addicted, not was it as strong as it would be in mundanes. But it could still be pleasant. Something calming, which was what Alec needed right now.

He hung around the tub anyway, flicking water at Magnus every now and then.

Eventually however even Magnus could hear the tones of his shadowhunters demanding his presence. Which was a shame because he was finally relaxed.

He pulled the plug, letting Alec wrap around him for a few moments. It wasn’t a scent thing, hopefully Alec couldn’t smell anything at all right now. Muscle memory was more accurate, and it made Magnus wonder how many times Raphael had stood in this exact same position as he braced Alec to meet with one warm blooded thing or another.

He pulled his clothes on just as Jace was threatening to burn this place to the ground, stepping out to see four very pissed shadowhunters. “Are you ready to go home?” Magnus asked them.

“Are you?” Jace countered.

“No. I told you, I'm staying here.” He may have sounded a little childish but they honestly weren’t listening to him.

Something caught their eye, Jace scoffing before snapping, “Is that what this is about? If you’re so desperate to get laid I’m sure Alec will give you a quickie when we get home.”

“Jace!” it was the first time Alec had actually spoke since they saw each other. Should have known it would be to defend his masculine pride.

There was a short squabble, one Magnus wasn’t really focusing on as Isabelle had wormed her way around to the Alec behind him. “You’re a shadowhunter?” She reached a hand out, and Magnus could see the appeal. Those runes were something else burned red.

Alec stepped back before she could, “Please don’t touch me.”

“He’s a vampire,” Magnus explained.

“Oh,” she took a step back herself before narrowing her eyes slightly. “You look younger. Seventeen?”

“Eighteen,” Alec said, Magnus hearing his fingers tap on his phone.

“That kind of sucks.” Literally. “Do you see us at all?”

Alec shook his head. “It’s hard.”

Isabelle nodded, she, at least, Magnus didn’t worry about. No matter what universe it was she cared for her brother that was for sure. “What about-?”

“Don’t,” Magnus warned her. “You’re not going to be here long enough to do anything and it’s best you don’t know anyway.”

She nodded. Wise girl. “Well if you don’t see us, why don’t I fill you in on everything you’ve missed. At least in my world. It'll give them a chance to talk.”

Alec’s face twisted, and Magnus had never been so happy to remember, “Raphael’s in your room isn’t he?” someone who could stop Alec if it came down to it since he knew, without a doubt, Alec wanted to see his sister.

They walked off, the door opening before they got there. If Isabelle was worried she didn’t show it, even saying hello to Raphael before the door closed on the rest of the room.

The others, save Clary, seemed to realise they’d lost one since Jace seemed even more eager to get Magnus out of here now.

He didn’t think he’d argued this much since Isabelle's trial, and that wasn’t so much arguing as it was reminding everyone what a joke that was.

Jace, for his part, seemed to get louder and more vicious the longer something didn’t go his way. Some of the things he said were bad enough to warrant the other two shutting him down, and almost all of it was about the other Alec. Magnus let it go on as long as he could. He wasn’t rising to Jace’s bait. But some of those things, some of the insinuations were bordering on the truth so much he couldn’t help the urge to snap back at them.

Like using the other Alec to stoke his ego because he’d been denied by their own. Maybe in the beginning that might have been true. He certainly had wanted to see what it would have been like if he’d been first choice. But Magnus had long separated them in his mind. He cared for Alec, this worlds Alec not because he was a carbon copy, but because he was different and sweet and an honestly nice man he wanted to spend time with. He wasn’t some battle hardened warrior who'd choose his career over his own happiness. Maybe that was because he didn’t have a career but still, if it came down to it, Magnus would put his heart on the line again for him. The other one? The one that had told him to get out, he couldn’t say the same for him. He didn’t know that Alec. 

Which reminded him, “Why did you come now? I've been here ages. Surely you would have noticed I was missing the first, oh maybe three months?” he had people he stayed in contact with. People who wouldn’t write off his disappearance as him needing ‘alone time’. His staff at the club most definitely. So something must have happened.

Jace was the one to say first, “We've been busy saving the shadow world. While you've been here, we’ve been making sure Valentine was gone for good.”

“And Jonathan,” Clary muttered.

“And Jonathan.”

He didn’t even know nor care who Jonathan was but Valentine? He wouldn’t say it was a shadow world problem. It had never been a shadow world problem. He’d told this Clary that and stuck by it now. Still, “I don’t see how that hinders you from getting me. All it would have taken was a few minutes of your time. You said it was a simple spell. How long did it take Cat to find?”

Jace’s mouth twisted before he shot back, “Well what about you? Why couldn’t you have done some work here and tried to get back yourself.”

“I did,” Magnus said. “I’ve had Ragnor and Cat going through every book they can find for this spell. I didn’t get here on purpose and this Magnus offed it before a number of spells could be created. I didn’t create this spell, and I have no idea how Cat did it either.”

There was a bit of a standoff before Clary tried, “Well we’re here now and we want you to come home Magnus.”

“Why?” they still hadn’t answered him that.

“Because you’re the proper high warlock and we need you.”

Ah. There it was. “So you didn’t miss me then.” He knew it. “You just missed all those free favours I gave you. Let me guess, Lorenzo isn’t as amenable working for you as I was?”

“He’s awful,” Clary agreed, not reading the room right.

Alec was the one to close his eyes sighing, “Clary.” He at least understanding what Magnus was saying. He finally looked at Magnus. “If you’re really happy here then we can’t force you to come home.”

“Ale-"

He cut them off, “We can’t okay. But Magnus, how long do you think you can stay here? Really?”

He shook his head, “I don’t know.” Because there would come a point where he wanted his friends. His own world. But so far that hadn’t come. 

Alec nodded. “We'll leave tonight, and if you call Catarina I can give her the spell. Just in case.”

“Thank you.”

He let Alec weather his siblings, retreating to Raphael’s room. Despite not wanting her to touch before they’d worked up to it now, Isabelle tracing her fingers over Alec’s parabatai rune. They looked up when the door closed.

“I’m staying.”

Alec grinned, and even Isabelle managed a smile. “If that’s what you want.”

He nodded, hopping up next to Raphael to steal some of his pillow. “You’ll be fine without me. You have been so far.”

“I’ll miss you.” And from Isabelle Magnus actually believed it.

They were in there for a while, and from the frequent flinches Alec and Raphael made things in the main room weren’t always civil conversation. Eventually however, some agreement had been made since Raphael suggested actually feeding the hungry vampire sitting next to him. 

Isabelle’s face, actually all of their faces as they saw Alec sipping blood was a sight he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. It made it real for them he supposed and led to Alec retreating once more to his room.

Nephilim were so judgemental.

Raphael was the one to call Cat. In the meantime Magnus found himself flicking through Raphael’s bar, making notes about which vintage was used the most so he could have some on hand at his own place. He felt someone looming after a while, and since there were only a few people taller than him here he guessed correctly when he looked to see Alec, shadowhuter Alec, behind him

“I wanted to say sorry. About how I acted.”  
Magnus stopped him there. “It was your wedding. I was out of line.”

“Maybe,” Alec admitted. “But I was tempted, for a moment. And I’m sorry anyway. I shouldn’t have led you on.”

“Led me on?” the only person who led him on was himself and he knew that now. “It’s fine. How is Lydia anyway?”

Alec nodded. “She’s pregnant.”

Oh. “I bet you’re excited.”

Alec nodded again. “It wasn’t- I mean.” He sighed. “I always wanted to be a dad. And she’s happy about it too.”

“Then congratulations, “ at least Alec was getting that out of his marriage.

Alec accepted it with another nod, folding his arms onto the bar. He quickly removed them when he realised what was actually on top of the table. “Other me... is he okay? Five years is a long time with no control.”

Alec had picked up on that too then. Of course he had it was himself just in another world. “I don’t think that’s up to me to say.”

“That’s fair.” He drummed his fingers a moment before asking, “You’re happy with him though right? He doesn’t mess you around or... try to feed off you?”

Magnus would have rolled his eyes if Alec wasn’t actually concerned about that. “I am happy. And no, he doesn’t feed off me. Raphael maybe but they have a weird thing going on that I’m still getting my head around.”

Alec squinted a moment before deciding to let that go. “I’m sorry. Again. And we didn’t just want you back because of the free magic.”

“Maybe not all of you,” but enough people did. 

Alec hung around a little longer, waving to his counterpart when he stuck his head out again. That reminded him.

“You may not want to ever tell your parents about your... preferences. I can speak for our world but in this one it didn’t go well.” He still didn’t know if it was solely Robert that pulled it off or if Maryse was involved as well.

“Oh?” Alec seemed to stiffen slightly, “Is- is that how...?”

Magnus twisted his mouth, “It’s not my place to say,” even if he already had.

Alec understood anyway, and was looking a little tense when Cat did show up to do her bit of magic. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little tempted to go with them. But, his place was here now, something he was reminded of when Isabelle and Clary finally unlatched themselves and disappeared back home.

He could have killed Raphael when he got kicked out of the bed, again, that morning.

But he was just so happy to wake up in this world that he settled for drawing on the vampires face and squirming his way back to his spot in the bed.

“I have the video,” Raphael told him a few days later.

“Of?” he couldn’t think of anything that had led up to this. In fact, Magnus was still trying to chew through his bacon.

Yet Raphael knew what he was talking about since he said, “Alec’s death. His resurrection. The precinct massacre and his first few weeks here. If you want to see them.”

“Why would i-"

“You were telling the other him about it. I thought you were curious. Just thought you’d like to know I have the tape.”

Okay. Maybe he was a little curious but still, “Why do you have them?”

Raphael shrugged, “thought they would come in handy some day. Maybe if I needed to blackmail Robert.”

Which was a fair point. “Does Alexander know you have them?”

Raphael nodded which put some of the anxiety at bay. “I was trying to remove the copies of... before.” The werewolves and what they did. “and he told me about the cameras outside the Institute. How the mundane ones would have caught Robert but they rewrote themselves after a few weeks.”

An interesting notion. “I don’t know.” It didn’t feel right.

“Ask Alec. He’s been figuring out what to do with them for years.” After all if Alec told Raphael about them he probably wanted them for himself.

He did. After a while. He didn’t really know how to bring it up. Eventually he ended up waking Alec over it, a little happy to see he didn’t try and bite Magnus’s hand off like he might’ve done a few weeks ago. “hmm?” He blinked up at Magnus. A good night then, and one Magnus was regretting waking him up from.

He asked anyway, and ended up sandwiched between Raphael and the sofa arm as Lily put the tape on.

Cheery music and a slideshow of photos of Alec was the main screen. Poor taste maybe but Alec had posed for them at some point, fully aware of what they were going to be used for. ‘Baby's first days' replaced ‘play’ Lily asking where abouts Magnus wanted to see.

He glanced at Alec, the man not looking too bothered. He wasn’t apparently bothered by any of this, the worst had happened before after all. This? This was just Alec’s justice and revenge. “I guess all of it?”

“It’s quite long. We have a condensed version we like to save for movie nights if you want that?” Apparently all the modern vamps had a baby’s first days film. Magnus didn’t know whether to be amused or appalled by them all. Regardless, Lily fetched the shorter of Alec’s tapes, Magnus tossing blood coated popcorn Alec’s way while they waited.

When it finally played, the shot was just behind the Institute overlooking the gate that led to the newsagents. Robert and Alec appeared, and Magnus had to hold back a gasp at the skin that was literally hanging off Alec. They’d skinned him, but they hadn’t removed all of it. Some of it swaying in wind as the camera changed angles. Naturally, since this was the edited version he didn’t have to wait for the camera to pan back.

Instead in one jerk Magnus was back looking at Alec and Robert, the two of them sitting, Robert with his back to the church and Alec crying in front of him.

Three times he turned Alec’s head away, their mouths moving in questions Magnus already knew. The, “I hate this bit,” Lily winced, “Ooh look at that hold.”

It took a moment for Magnus to see what Lily had, a rewind too to see the moment Robert makes his decision. The way he grabs the back of Alec’s head, keeping it in place, tilting it.

Then the dagger and the blood but somehow that hold, the coldness in it, got to Magnus.  
The rest it was Robert digging. Not once did Magnus see him break down. When did he decide to kill his own son? On the phone as Alec and Raphael told him what happened? After? Before? When Alec first told him he was gay? He didn’t know, and not knowing pulled into question Maryse. Was she in on it? What does she think happened to her son?

Robert went in just after midday, Nephilim morning. It took until just after sundown for the shallow grave he dug to unearth itself and Alec to crawl free.

The next CCTV they have is of the police station. Of Alec being brought in. Of him and a police officer locking eyes as he was led to the holding cells.

Then carnage. He got the two holding him first, and by God there was a reason vampires don’t turn Nephilim. Alec had been trained to kill since birth. Worse, he'd been trained to kill demons. Mundanes were nothing to him. He knew how to knock one out for a later snack. The best way to hide so he could drop down on those coming down.  
The only ones that stood a slither of a chance were the werewolves, and Luke quickly jumped ship as Alec finished tearing through one of his pack members.

The cars outside didn’t see him coming. All those bright lights and they should have been looking in the shadows. Alec finished with them quickly.

The vampires came after. One died. The others tossed blood bags to Alec until they could pin him down, carrying him off after a few bites to calm him down. 

The hotel footage was both sad and a little funny. Camille got kicked in the face. Then the rest of it was Alec, alone in the basement, wandering lost for hours until Raphael came down to see him.

The whole thing was certainly something. Sad. Awful. It was one thing to listen to Alec tell it and another to see him bloody and scared and just wanting his father to help him.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,”

Magnus told him later, hugging Alec tight to his chest as other memories tried to cross over to his recent ones. “If I’m being honest I always thought it would be you mother who would turn on you.” She was certainly vicious enough.

Alec shook his head, burrowing his nose further into Magnus’s shirt. “Mom didn’t care. She used to hang around with Michael. My dad’s parabatai? He was... bi, I think. She just told me no downworlders. Dad was the one who told Michael to never see him again.”

He hadn’t known that. But then, they were his enemies, why would he know that? “I still didn’t think they’d do it to their own son though.”

Alec laughed, “Me neither. It happened though. I just wish I could still see my family. I miss them.”

Magnus bet. He thought about it for a moment before suggesting, “Maybe I could invite one of them around mine for dinner. Just one. You were okay with Isabelle when it was just the two of you.” With Raphael but, he wasn’t counting that. 

“Maybe,” Alec agreed after a moment. “But they’re going to ask questions.”

Ones he may not want to answer right now Magnus knew. “Then I’ll tell her that it’s strictly things that have been going on in the last three years.” Three was broad enough.

It took a bit more convincing before Magnus was stood outside the Institute’s doors waiting for the nightly patrols to head out.  
Isabelle was one of the last ones out, and Magnus almost didn’t see her she looked so... like Maryse. Her hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail, and gone were her flashy outfits. Instead she seemed to have stuck to the uniform, and Magnus no longer felt so good about going over to her.

So he didn’t.

Instead he waited for Clary to sprint over to Isabelle’s long gait and caught Jace’s arm. “A word?”

“How about three,” Jace snapped, pulling his arm back, “Make an appointment.”

Wonderful. “It’s about your brother.”

That stopped Jace in his tracks, if only so he could pull his seraph on Magnus. “You so much as speak Max's direction- “

“Your other brother. Alexander?”

The seraph wobbled a little before lowering slightly, “What about Alec?”

“He wants to meet-" wrong thing to say since that blade was back at his throat.

“Alec is dead. So-“

“You obviously haven’t spoken to Clary. Or Simon. Alexander is a vampire. He’s staying at the DuMort but would like to meet you for dinner over mine. Ask biscuit if you don’t believe me.” she'd better back him up on this.

“I’ll be back here in two days to pick you up. Eight, sharp. Don’t be late.”

Alec had to write a whole new slew of question cards when Magnus told him he’d caught Jace instead of Isabelle. But he was happy. He was awake through the day of, asking to be corralled over so he could help set up. Since Magnus wasn’t poisoning his potential in law at their first formal dinner, he had Alec set the table. Then feed the cats. Then learn how to fold napkins when vampire speed wasn’t always a good thing.

Eventually nightfall came, and Magnus piled another cat on his excited vampire to keep him put while he went to fetch Jace.

The Nephilim, thankfully, had talked to someone since he was there on time, and actually handed flowers over. “It’s just a sorry. Don’t read too much into it.”

He didn’t, warning Jace beforehand, like he had to that they were on strict conversation topics that night. It was probably good he did say that since Jace had a good swear about it as Magnus walked them to the subway.

As tempting as it was to portal, he didn’t want to give the Nephilim something like that just yet. The walk would hopefully calm Jace down anyway.

It did not.

If he knew where he was going he probably would have ran he was that nasty. As it was he did take the stairs two at a time, Alec meeting him at the top. There wasn’t a hug. Jace gave it a go, but Alec managed to stop him. “Blood,” he reminded Jace

Which, “You really are a vampire?” naturally followed.

“Afraid so.”

Jace nodded, biting his lip before forcing out, “At least you’re still here.”

“I am.”

And Magnus didn’t even want to know how hard it was for them. One soul split back into two. He did know one thing however, and that was, “Our dinner is going to get eaten if we don’t get inside.”

“Right,” Alec remembered, just catching a ginger beast before it snagged a bit of the chicken.

Dinner was quiet. Mainly it was a lot of Jace and Alec staring at each other. Magnus was thinking about stealing Alec’s question cards for himself when Jace finally broke the silence to ask about how much everyone at the hotel hated Simon.

A topic that lasted them a good few hours.

Then, “So he's your boyfriend then?”

Alec nodded, looking very pleased with himself. “ I guess like a month? Maybe two. He thought we were in some sort of three way before that so I don’t count it.”

“A three way?” Jace grinned. “With who?”

“Raphael.”

“Didn’t you used to hang around with him?”

“Make out,” Magnus corrected. “and they were all over each other at the hotel. It was no wonder I got the wrong idea.”

Alec denied it. He’d deny it for the rest of his life but Magnus had seen it from the outside and from the outside him and Raphael were awful chummy. Jace thought it was funny anyway. Although if it was actual funny or hysterical laughter remained to be seen. Jace had literally only learned his brother was alive after five years two days ago had a boyfriend, was basically co-ruling the New York clan and was a vampire on top of that.  
Jace told them little things in return. Nothing world ending like Valentine. Things like about Max and how he had his rune ceremony this year. How Isabelle was now the Head of the Armory and a definite candidate for Head of the Institute at some point. How their parents were doing. That last one had Magnus listening extremely closely. But it was nothing more than they’d been to Idris quite a lot this year.

“They’re also divorced. Mom's dating this guy Luke. He’s Clary’s mom's friend.”

“Oh?”

Magnus shook his head behind Alec’s back, begging Jace not to say it. The man thankfully got the message, leaving it at “He's okay.”

He told them a little about Clary’s brother Jonathan. How Jocelyn had him in Idris, and was taking him to the Silent Brothers for help. 

“I mean, things have been happening. But things always happen.”

Alec nodded. “So were you going to tell me you’re dating that redhead today or...?”

Jace floundered for a moment before slowly sniffing his clothes.

“She’s been by the hotel like ten times. I could smell you all over her,” the face Alec made wasn’t one of jealousy however, Magnus relaxed minutely.

“It’s still new.”

Alec made a face but let Jace keep his lie. He asked about them anyway, muttering in Spanish low enough only Magnus could hear about the two idiots being perfect for each other. 

It was a successful night, his cats even came out to say hello it was that good. But the night had to end at some point, the three of them walking Alec back to the hotel. Jace was trying, that much was certain when he didn’t try and hug Alec goodbye. He even asked, “Maybe next time we could have dinner here? I don’t think I’ve actually seen the DuMort socially.”

“If you like,” Alec grinned, waving them goodnight.

“Wait until we’re a street away,” Magnus muttered, leading Jace by the arm until they were out of earshot. 

When he let go Jace didn’t even stay standing, sinking down the wall as high sobs escaped his throat. Another reason to walk. 

“I know,” he waited as long as Jace needed to get himself back together.

When they were upright and walking, Magnus couldn’t help noticing the way Jace kept touching his hip. Would it be clear, Magnus wondered. Alec’s wasn’t, but Alec was undead. The bond had been severed, so would it be gone, or would it be like Alec’s?

“It’s not been easy for him before you start,” since Jace would. Maybe not right now as he was still wiping his eyes clear. But at some point he would. “He has a... anger problem,” was the nicest way to say he could be set off at any moment. “as well as a number of other things. Raphael did his best but he couldn’t do much under Camille. He’s getting better though. That’s why he wanted to see you.”

Jace nodded, giving a very big unattractive sniff.

“Thank you for not saying anything more about Luke. Werewolves... I’m pretty sure he’ll kill any he crossed paths with if Raphael’s not there.” And Magnus’s spell was working.

“Okay,” Jace choked out. 

“Also if you could maybe not tell your parents that would be great. They’ll only complicate things.” 

Jace nodded, the pair of them agreeing on that.

The Institute loomed after a while, and in the early morning sun Magnus could see the patch of land Robert had set aside for his son. He didn’t particularly want to hang around long after that, making sure Jace got inside before totalling back home.

Alec really had the worst timing to ask for Jace around again. Magnus was almost there, hand tipping himself to the edge as he watched Alec lazily fist himself, head pillows on Magnus’s chest when, “Do you think if we had Raphael with us we could go out somewhere to eat?”

He didn’t quite register that at first. When he did all thoughts of how great this was, how proud he was that Alec knew him enough he could watch Magnus with no problems flew out the window. “What?”

Alec sat himself up. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe it would be nice if Raphael met Jace. He’s family and Jace is family. It makes sense right?”

“Maybe.” Maybe if he hadn’t been five seconds from cumming. But Alec had brought it up now, and the mood was gone so they sat there making plans the rest of the night.

Just Jace Alec decided. “And you.” Alec made sure. “I can handle that many people that’s all.” He nodded to himself as if to make sure.

“Whatever you want,” Magnus said, and basically let Alec go wild. He wasn’t an uncultured shadowhunter, so Magnus trusted him to know the right establishments that would cater to everyone’s needs and not kick Jace out because he had runes. Alec’s were different, anyone with an eye could see that, and anyone with a brain would know to steer clear of him because of that. It was rather like being a predator Magnus mused as he traced one on Alec’s arm. Unusual enough to tell others to stay back, but just plain enough to blend in at the same time. “Like a tiger,” Magnus teased him with a few days later.

“I’m not the one with cat eyes.”

Magnus blinked a few times, trying to figure out when he’d let his glamour down.   
Alec didn’t seem to sense his distress, still busy rifling through his side of Raphael’s absurd wardrobe room for something decent to wear. “I like them. I don’t know why you hide them.”

“You do?”

“Sure,” it wasn’t said to make him feel better. Alec was only half paying attention to the conversation, and it was because of that Magnus believed him. “They’re you aren’t they? Like your other mark.” Which Alec had shown how much he liked by always giving his bare skin a nice long suck before moving on.

He watched Alec a little longer, wondering how someone like him was even real. “Maybe not a tiger. You too soft. Just one big buck prancing around with your long legs and big eyes.”

Alec zipped over to hold his finds up, “I’m not soft,” he insisted, and only insisted on that.

In the end he looked very nice, as did Magnus. Although, “I’m just saying if you insist on having a full room at least let me keep some things in there too. I stay here sometimes.”

“I gave you an apartment,” Raphael said. “You’re not getting my closet.”

“Alec back me up here.”

Alec shook his head, “I’m not getting involved. Do you know how much arguing it took to get my slither in that place?”

“You don’t even have that many clothes,” Raphael muttered, his hand tight on Alec’s arm.

“Then why did you put up such a fuss?” 

Both of them had Magnus’s spell on them, Raphael after he slunk over to Magnus telling him he maybe had a problem with blood too. Something Magnus knew since, well his own did as well. But he never thought it pained him like it did Alec. He must have been a better actor than Magnus gave him credit for. Especially because Magnus could actually see the improvement in him. He wasn’t so tense walking the streets. He was still on edge, but usually he was as quiet as a mouse when he came out with Magnus and Alec. Now he was actually making conversation, and it felt nice.

“Okay both of you that’s enough,” Magnus said, “let’s all agree that the closet is great. And that I’ll be getting that empty space near the mirror.”

“No.” Raphael wasn’t budging on that. But he was open to negotiations now that Magnus had made his ultimatum.

The restaurant was a nice Latin place with string instruments and low lit candles. It was decorated just shy of offensive, but the on tap was apparently great. “The mundanes seem to like it here too. What did you say it was? Fourth generation?”

“Third,” Raphael said, “They migrated around the same time my family did. This place was sort of like a home away from home before their kids took over. They wanted to make it more ‘touristy’.”

Magnus was excited then. Jace was already seated too so they didn’t have to wait. He wasn’t crying, but he was taking very deep breaths when they got over there.

Considering how standoffish the Jace in his old world was Magnus was surprised when this one stood up to formally introduce himself to Raphael.

“Sorry about the whole breaking and entering thing too,” Jace said.

“We heard you coming,” Raphael shrugged. “we only needed the mundane anyway to have something against Camille. Wasn’t bargaining on him being turned.”

Jace pursed his lips, nodding, “I hear he's causing trouble.”

“He was. He’s been exiled.”

Which explained why Alec was never too riled up when he came around these days.

Things were going well. Really well. Jace was still uncomfortable, but he tried to make conversation. He steered clear of topics Magnus had told him were off limits, and attempted to show a genuine interest when one of the downworlders present talked about downworld things.

“And you just... left him?”

Magnus shrugged, “Ragnor’s a big boy. He has magic, too. He was fine.”

Jace shook his head. “That’s certainly a story.” Not a good one. But not a bad one either. Magnus could live with middle ground from Jace.

“Oh that reminds me,” Alec said, patting his pockets. “It’s Izzy's birthday soon, and Magnus managed to get her... this back,” he held out the necklace Magnus had indeed gotten from his arrogant seelie customer. “could you give it to her?”

Jace near snatched it out of Alec’s hands, “she’s going to go crazy. She loved this thing.”

“I know.”

Jace tossed it a few times in his hand before agreeing, “Fine. I’ll give it to her. But we say it’s from the both of us.”

“That’s just because you don’t have anything nice for her.”

“Not as nice as this,” Jace didn’t deny.

“Besides you’re alive. That’s basically the best present you could ever give her. You give her this on top of it and it’s just not fair on the rest of us.”

“Let him give her the necklace,” Raphael sighed. “If you really want to get her something special I know a boutique that specialise in disguised weapons. You said she wanted to be an iron sister didn’t you?”

Alec stuck his tongue out at Jace, Raphael bringing up the stores website, Jace even leaning over to get a look. It was while he did that Magnus was able to see the face of a very startled Maryse Lightwood staring back at him.

Fear coursed through him before he remembered that they’d never met in this world. She also probably didn’t care less about who he was since two of her sons was at the same table as him. One of whom Magnus knew for certain now, she thought was dead too.

Maryse stood, and shock had Magnus looking around him to see Luke too. They must have been on a date, and Alec said his mother used to live in Spain. Anything Latin would remind her of happier times so of course she would know this place. Or Luke would have put some feelers out to find it.

Maryse maybe they could have weathered. But Luke? Magnus sent a burst of magic knocking their glasses over. He’d never texted so fast in his life, hoping Raphael didn’t show the others as he made his way over to the happy couple.

“You need to leave,” Magnus hissed, well aware their noses weren’t working but their ears were.

“Excuse-"

He ignored Maryse, focusing on Luke “You need to leave now. He knows your face.”

Luke followed his gaze and near jumped a mile. Agreeing with a nod, since he too wasn’t stupid enough to question a vampire’s hearing. He dragged Maryse out too. So that was that crisis averted. For now.

He still told Jace afterwards when Raphael and Alec walked the other way to the hotel.

“Mom's gonna kill me,” Jace sighed.

Magnus kept his mouth shut, jokes about Maryse not being the child killer in the best of taste right now. Alec would probably appreciate it anyway. He seemed to have a dark humour Magnus was only just wrapping his head around. “Just try and stem the damage as best you can. And make sure your father doesn’t find out.”

“Yeah,” Jace agreed, still looking defeated as he trudged up to the Institute.

Alec took Maryse finding out he was still alive fairly well. Meaning he almost wore a hole in Magnus’s floor as he paced and paced and almost tripped over a cat and paced. “She’s gonna come find me. Maybe I should go to her.” Idea upon idea upon idea.

“Jace is trying his best to keep her away until you’re ready,” Magnus reminded him.

“Yeah but when has that ever stopped my mom?” rhetorical maybe, but Magnus had told Alec all about his encounters with his mother in the other world so maybe not.

“Well we won’t know until she comes to find you so there’s no use worrying until then.” He hadn’t even told Alec about Luke yet. He didn’t really want to. Maybe he should just let Maryse do it. Or Raphael. Raphael was a good option. He knew what he was doing.

He even agreed with Magnus, when he told him about Luke, that he'd made the right decision. “there’s no way you could’ve handled meltdown. I’ll tell him.” Good old Raphael. “Just don’t expect any calls for the next week.”

He didn’t. Nor did he call. Instead he went to Cat about therapist options and advice about trauma. Granted she thought it was all for him, but he got quite a but of advice out of it anyway. Advice he left lying around the next time Alec was over. 

Alec didn’t even pretend he didn’t see them, glowering so much Magnus thought he’d start a fight before slumping onto Magnus’s shoulder near sun up. “You think they’ll really help?”

“I honestly don’t know.” It wasn’t just trauma, it was half of his soul missing and the emotional lightning bolt that was vampirism.

“But I think it’s worth a try. It might sort some things out.”

Alec nodded, and a few of the numbers were gone when he finally asked to be portalled home.

It was a few weeks. A few weeks of Alec coming over sporadically. Of Jace, somehow, getting his number and asking after his brother. A few weeks of Ragnor and Cat checking in and clients quickly filling up his piggy bank before Maryse Lightwood finally knocked on his door.

He knew who it was before he opened his door. She had an appointment after all. She used her maiden name but Magnus was familiar with Maryse enough to know her voice when she called to ask for a consultation.

She also brought Luke, which had Magnus a little hesitant about letting them inside. “He’s not here is he?” Luke picked up on.

“No but he does come around a lot,” Magnus admitted before finally biting the bullet. He was going to have a werewolf in here at some point. It might as well be now.

Maryse stuck her hand out as soon as the door closed, “Maryse. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Not here they hadn’t. “Magnus Bane.” Her arm was strangely devoid of runes. Neck too. He pushed it to the side. “This is about Alexander then.”

“He’s alive,” she said in that cutting way that blamed everyone else in the room.

“He’s a vampire.”

“He should be taken in for what he did to the precinct,” Luke said.

“Don’t, “ Maryse warned, an argument it looks like they’d had before. “if Alec’s not in trouble by now then he shouldn’t be at all. Besides, he was a newborn.” 

How hard had that been for her Magnus wondered. 

“Where is he?” Luke asked.

“At the hotel where he’s been for five years. Raphael has him in hand, and he is getting help. What happened, I know, was horrific.” That’s all there was to it. It was bad.

Luke shook his head, “I’ve never seen a newborn like that.”

“I have.” Only a few times however, and quite frankly he hoped to never again. Not all of them were lucky enough to have someone like Raphael on hand to help them. Most of the time they were put down before their rage could destroy a whole city. “Almost always it’s because of trauma. And I know what trauma in this case. But you’re going to have to ask him about it if you want to know.” He may have been feeling a little spiteful. Call it testing the waters, but he wanted to see Maryse's face when he suggested, “Or you could ask Robert.”

She didn’t know. “Robert?” Magnus had seen her deceive people before and that wasn’t this. She really had no idea what her husband had done. “What’s Robert got to do with this?”

“It’s really not my place to say.” He hoped she gave him hell.

Maryse seemed to know she wasn’t going to win that fight since she turned onto other things. Like just why Magnus was with her son and why Jace knew he was alive before her, his own mother. He tried to answer as many questions as he could without causing a fight, but, obviously, when she learned he’d been alive all this time and she’d never known tempers started to flare.

Thankfully Luke could calm her down or Magnus would have been forced to actually use Jace’s number. Which meant they got onto other things. Things Magnus honestly hadn’t expected from a woman as cold as Maryse often seemed.

“He’s feeding plenty? He’s not skipping any meals?” she made sure.

“Trust me he has a very healthy appetite. And Raphael keeps him fed whenever he wants it.” Sometimes he even had seconds at Magnus’s.

“And his sleeping patterns? He gets to bed without any problem? He doesn’t sleepwalk does he? He used to when he was younger.” 

“No.” But that might also explain why Raphael climbed on top of him while he slept. “honestly he’s fine. He’s getting better too. I told him you'd seen him. I’m sure if you give it a few weeks, and maybe wash the werewolf smell off you, he’ll want to see you.”

“Hey!”

“No offence,” in fact Luke rather good to him.

“Alec doesn’t like any werewolf. The smell sets him off.” 

“I could've told you that.” 

Well Magnus made sure to tell him again, and for both of them to understand the seriousness of it. He didn’t enjoy always playing peace maker, but he’d do just about anything for Alec. So off the two of them went after a while, Magnus phoning the DuMort immediately after to tell Alec his mom was now officially waiting to see him.

It was rather cute, the next time Alec came around, to hear him ask almost the same questions Maryse did. Did his mom look well? How angry did she seem to him? Was that Luke guy treating her right?

“Everything’s fine.”

Alec nodded. “Jace said she'd been deruned, I guess I’m just a little worried.”

That explained her bare arms. Maybe why she was willing to date a downworlder too. He still hoped she gave Robert hell for what he did. He knew she was capable of it.

He got a thank you for putting up with Maryse in the form of a new silk scarf. He would have said it was too much but when Alec said it reminded him of Magnus, more specifically the colour of Magnus’s eyes, his real eyes, he couldn’t help accepting it. He had to keep it away from his cats but very quickly it because his favourite thing, and Alec’s favourite thing to take off.

A good and bad thing. It felt like the universe knew when they were trying to have a bit of fun. Not always, but often enough, Alec would either lose interest or, like today, one of their phones would start ringing and just not stop.

He let his head fall to the back of the tub, trying not to dig his nails into Alec’s thighs where they rested over his own. It was the first time he'd been given the okay to touch, just to touch, and then the world throws this at them? He hated whoever was calling with a vengeance they’d swiftly become acquainted with.

“Go,” Magnus sighed, feeling Alec’s lovely thick thighs leave.

“It’s Jace.” Of course it was Jace. It was always Jace. Jace was a natural born cockblock and he didn’t even have a parabatai bond to help him out anymore. 

Alec took it out of the room, Magnus sinking below the bubbles until those bath salts scratched against his back. At least he'd smell nice. Alec was there when he came up for air, the phone still to his ear with a brow raised Magnus’s way. He felt a little like he was in trouble. Had he offended Jace in some way? He knew he had a few plans in motion to stop the boy from calling at heated times but that was about all.

He raised a brow back, letting Alec say goodbye to his wayward brother. “What?”

“Mom wants to see the CCTV footage of my first few days.”

Ah. Wait. “I didn’t tell her you had those. I only told her to question Robert. And I did it very vaguely. I just wanted to see if Maryse was involved.” Which he’d already told Alec as such.

“I know,” then why the look? “Mom's been asking about you though. Wants to meet your properly.”

Oh. “Okay. Like formally?”

Alec hopped back into the tub, Magnus finding himself quickly cold before a warm chest hit his back. “Like as my boyfriend. She’s excited. I didn’t think she’d ever thought I’d bring anyone back.” Because of the dead thing and the keep it low profile thing probably.

“I’m a downworlder,” Magnus reminder him. Something Alec had said would bother her.

“She’s dating one too. And I’m one now, and apparently Simon’s been around the Institute so much he basically lives there so I don’t think she'll mind too much.” He buried his nose in Magnus’s neck. “You are going to have to use that spell though. I don’t think Luke will be there but...”

“Yeah.” 

Alec kissed slowly up and down his neck. “I appreciate it you know. The magic you use for me. I know it’s not nothing.”

He may have made a happy rumble he’d take to his grave. “It is nothing for you.”

“I appreciate you anyway,” Alec told him.

The CCTV was handed over at the DuMort. Magnus wasn’t there, but Raphael told him later that he made seven copies just in case Simon broke five on his way to the Institute.

Things sort of snowballed from there.  
Magnus wasn’t exactly involved, he was more just hanging around and got fed information whenever he decided to check in. Quite a lot happened however. For one, an actual formal enquiry was made about Alec’s abduction. Something that should have happened straight away. Especially because those men were probably still out there doing the same thing to other people.

Alec had to make quite a lot of statements. It took a lot out of him, and he came over more annoyed every day. “The only reason they’re bothered is because I was a shadowhunter when it happened. The way they talk to me it’s like they’re waiting for me to say I was already turned so they can call it a day.”  
That was probably exactly what they were doing. 

But Alec had proof his torture was before his resurrection so the Clave had to look into it.

Or, more specifically, Isabelle.

The day she rocked up on his door was one he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon. It was like seeing a ghost from the past, Maryse staring back out of Isabelle’s face. Even Alec seemed a little shocked at the change when Magnus let her in.

Some things hadn’t changed however, and that was the way she tried to fling herself at Alec as soon as they saw each other. “I’m so sorry.” Magnus didn’t even know which one was saying it, and left them to catch up in peace.

One thing was for certain. Robert wasn’t getting off the hook at all. Raphael was the one to tell him the Clave wasn’t making any formal charges, which made no sense at all since he’d killed a shadowhunter. “A gay, compromised shadowhunter,” Raphael corrected, which, yeah, Magnus could see why there would be resistance.

But the Lightwoods? He’d never seen them turn so fast on someone. If Robert hadn’t already moved to the LA Institute he would have the amount of threats they sent his way. Magnus heard Luke repeatedly tell them they couldn’t, by law, do something like that. But even he had no love lost for Robert.

Alec told him, one night, that he saw Robert at the Institute when he first came to do his statement. “I think if I hadn’t went to see someone,” those numbers he’d taken from Magnus’s home. “That I might have done something and they’d have dismissed it. But I didn’t.” He was getting better, was his point.  
Having his family around him seemed to do that too. Raphael they took a little while to warm up to. Just like they did Magnus too.

But they never treated Alec differently, which Magnus was glad for. Also, a year later, Alec met Luke for the first time. He still had Magnus’s spell in place, but the two met cordially, Alec even apologising for what happened at the precinct.

Not everything was great. There were still hiccups. But Magnus never regretted his decision to stay. Not even when a hundred years passed did he regret staying here. Not when he had Alec.

Even if sometimes Alec was a little tetchy. Like, “No. We have thirty cats already Magnus. And those are only the ones I can see. I know you sneak more in when I’m gone.”

He held his newest baby up higher. “but she needs us.”

Alec glared but eventually he’ let the cat stay.

He always let their babies stay and that was why Magnus loved him. He may not have got his happy ending that first time with Alec, but, as Alexander kept reminding him, that was because he was looking for love in the wrong universe.


End file.
